Experience gained from engineering, construction, and maintenance of nuclear power plants in the Federal Republic of Germany

From the very beginning of nuclear power engineering in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the main objective was to achieve a high degree of reliability for all safety systems, the nuclear steam supply systems, and the balance of plant. Major measures of a general nature included the following: (1) provision of the same redundancy for all parts of systems related to safety or availability; (2) introduction of appropriate quality assurance programs for design, development, manufacture, erection, testing, operation, and maintenance; and (3) optimization of design, not with the aim of reducing plant costs but in order to improve operation and safety. A few examples are provided of improvements that Kraftwerk Union AG, as a supplier of turnkey nuclear power plants, has incorporated in its plants over the past years