Periodic safety review of the Budapest Research Reactor

The Hungarian legal system obliges operators of a nuclear facility to prepare a safety review every decade (periodic safety review - PSR), the main goal being that the PSR should serve as one of the basic items for renewing the operation license of the facility. In 2002 the regulatory body issued us with a guidance document to carry out a PSR. This document very clearly defined the requirements. The general philosophy of the PSR was that the 10-years' operational record should reflect the present condition of the reactor, and that the adequacy of the reactor systems and subsystems should be verified with special consideration to the next 10 years of operation (lifetime estimation). All operational experiences including event records were required to be reviewed; moreover, all aspects of human resources were required to be checked and evaluated with particular regard to safety. On the basis of these requirements we carried out a safety review of the Budapest Research Reactor (BRR), and prepared a report. The regulatory body accepted our PSR Report and in November 2003 renewed the operation license of the BRR, that is now valid until further notice. The PSR procedure conducted at the BRR ensures a complex overall review of the research reactor by handling the reactor as a complex organization together with its service life. This PSR procedure could be one of the approaches for substantiating the renewal of the operation license by designating the conditions for safely extending the reactor's lifetime; moreover, it may be useful as a model for conducting periodic safety reviews at other facilities. (author)