Radiation protection aspects in the design of nuclear power plants. Safety guide

The IAEA's Statute authorizes the Agency to establish safety standards to protect health and minimize danger to life and property - standards which the IAEA must use in its own operations, and which a State can apply by means of its regulatory provisions for nuclear and radiation safety. A comprehensive body of safety standards under regular review, together with the IAEA's assistance in their application, has become a key element in a global safety regime. In the mid-1990s, a major overhaul of the IAEA's safety standards programme was initiated, with a revised oversight committee structure and a systematic approach to updating the entire corpus of standards. The new standards that have resulted are of a high calibre and reflect best practices in Member States. With the assistance of the Commission on Safety Standards, the IAEA is working to promote the global acceptance and use of its safety standards. Safety standards are only effective, however, if they are properly applied in practice. The IAEA's safety services - which range in scope from engineering safety, operational safety, and radiation, transport and waste safety to regulatory matters and safety culture in organizations - assist Member States in applying the standards and appraise their effectiveness. These safety services enable valuable insights to be shared and continue to urge all Member States to make use of them. Regulating nuclear and radiation safety is a national responsibility, and many Member States have decided to adopt the IAEA's safety standards for use in their national regulations. For the Contracting Parties to the various international safety conventions, IAEA standards provide a consistent, reliable means of ensuring the effective fulfilment of obligations under the conventions. The standards are also applied by designers, manufacturers and operators around the world to enhance nuclear and radiation safety in power generation, medicine, industry, agriculture, research and education. The IAEA takes seriously the enduring challenge for users and regulators everywhere: that of ensuring a high level of safety in the use of nuclear materials and radiation sources around the world. Their continuing utilization for the benefit of humankind must be managed in a safe manner, and the IAEA safety standards are designed to facilitate the achievement of that goal. This Safety Guide has been prepared as a part of the IAEA programme on safety standards for nuclear power plants. It includes recommendations on how to satisfy the requirements established in the Safety Requirements publication on the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design. It addresses the provisions that should be made in the design of nuclear power plants in order to protect site personnel, the public and the environment against radiological hazards for operational states, decommissioning and accident conditions. The recommendations on radiation protection provided in this Safety Guide are consistent with the International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (BSS), which were jointly sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the IAEA, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). This Safety Guide supersedes Safety Series No. 50-SG-D9, Design Aspects of Radiation Protection for Nuclear Power Plants, published in 1985. Effective radiation protection is a combination of good design, high quality construction and proper operation. Procedures that address the radiation protection aspects of operation are covered in the Safety Guide on Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste Management in the operation of Nuclear Power Plants