Institutionalization of safety re-assessment system for operating nuclear power plants

In this study, in-depth reviews of the foreign countries' experiences and practices in applications of the periodic safety review (PSR), backfitting and license renewal systems as well as the current status of nuclear power safety assurance programs and activities in Korea have been performed to investigate the necessity and feasibility of the application of the systems for the domestic operating nuclear power plants and to establish effective strategy and methodology for the institutionalization of a periodic safety re-assessment system appropriate to both the domestic and international nuclear power environments by incorporating the PSR with the backfitting and license renewal systems. For these purposes, the regulatory policy, fundamental principles and detailed requirements for the institutionalization of the safety re-assessment system and the effective measures for active implementation of the backfitting program have been developed and then a comparative study of benefits and shortcomings has been conducted for the three different models of the periodic safety re-assessment system incorporated with either the license renewal or life extension process, which have been considered as practicable ones in the domestic situation. The model chosen in this study as the most appropriate safety re-assessment system is the one that the re-assessments are performed at the interval of ten years throughout the service life of nuclear power plant and the ten-year license renewal or life extension after the expiration of design life can be permitted based on the regulatory review of the re-assessment results and follow-up measures. Finally, this paper has discussed on the details of the requirements, approach and procedures established for the institutionalization of the periodic safety re-assessment system chosen as the most appropriate one for domestic applications