The Ukrainian regulatory authority's activities for ensuring fire safety at Ukraine's nuclear power plants

Ukraine's ''Nuclear Energy Utilization and Radiation Safety Act'', the basis for nuclear legislation in Ukraine, was passed in 1995. Pursuant to the Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Administration (NRA) of Ukraine's Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety is the main national body responsible for State safety regulation of the utilization of nuclear energy. The regulatory activities of the NRA cover - inter alia - those measures for the prevention of fires and for fire-fighting at nuclear facilities which affect nuclear safety, and the paper describes its regulatory activities in the fire safety field. The work of the Ukrainian regulatory authority responsible for ensuring fire safety at nuclear power plants consists in: evaluating the designs of and analysing the fire safety arrangements at operating NPP units and verifying compliance with nuclear and radiation safety criteria in the event of fires at NPPs; verifying that design changes made in the course of the modernization and upgrading of fire safety equipment at operating NPP units conform to the relevant safety standards and rules; formulating basic rules for NPP fire safety which ensure nuclear and radiation safety; and supervising the activities of operating organizations. (author)