World-wide standardization of power reactor safety and technology by ISO

The Nuclear Standards Committee (NKe) of the DIN German Standards Institute serves as the national counterpart of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 85 on Nuclear Energy. In particular, it acts as ISO secretariat in several subcommittees (SC) of TC 85, including SC 5, ''Nuclear Fuel and Technology'', and SC 3/WG 6, ''Pressure Boundaries of Primary Circuits''. After an introduction describing briefly the scope of ISO in general, past, current, and future activities in the reactor safety and technology field are discussed. Working Group 6 consists currently of the four subgroups Materials, Design, Manufacture, and Inspection and Testing. It developed one working document, N 130, ''Rules for steel reactor pressure vessels'', which is by now somewhat outdated, and then a replacement, which consists of the US ASME-III Code. In recent meetings of WG 6 and SC 3, it was decided to develop a revised version, taking into consideration a new German Code which is currently being developed by consensus of the five parties involved in the licensing process (licensing authorities; manufacturers and suppliers; utilities; the inspection organization, TUEV; and other interested institutions including DIN). A five-year-plan calls for completion of the draft proposals before the end of 1978. They are then to be circulated, revised and to be submitted to the ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva in 1979. After approval by the ISO member bodies and Council they are expected to become final ISO standards in 1981. Some more general considerations on the role of international standards, in particular in technology transfer to third-world countries, are also discussed briefly. (author)