Status of Spanish Regulations and Industry Actions Related to Filtered Containment Vent Systems

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident on March 11, 2011, the European Union launched a plan in order to analyse the capacity of nuclear power plants in the member countries to manage a similar situation. This plan was called ''stress tests'' and its objectives were to assess the ability of European nuclear power plants in operation to handle situations beyond their design basis, while identifying the existing margins and the possible measures to improve the managing of the postulated situations. Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) drafted a proposal for the "stress tests" which was approved by the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and distributed to the member countries for its implementation. The provisions included at the ENSREG's document were required to the Spanish nuclear power plants by the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) through Complementary Technical Instructions (ITC). CSN, after evaluating the facilities' stress tests reports, required the installation of Filtered Containment Venting Systems (FCVS), in agreement to the operators' conclusions. FCVS will be installed in all Spanish nuclear power plants by the end of 2017.