Improvements of the Periodic Safety Review (PSR) System for Operating Nuclear Power Plants

A PSR (Periodic Safety Review) for operating nuclear power plants is a comprehensive safety review of all important aspects of safety, against current safety standards and practices, carried out at regular intervals of ten years. The PSR has been implemented by European States such as the UK, France, etc., and Japan in earlier times. IAEA has strongly recommended its implementation in accordance with the Convention on Nuclear Safety. Korea became a member of the Convention on Nuclear Safety in September 1995, and formally adopted the PSR system through revision of Atomic Energy Act in January 2001. Recently the PSR results of Kori Unit 1 and Wolsong Unit 1 was approved by the regulatory body. And, safety review of the PSR results for Kori units 3 and 4 is in progress. Korea has successfully carried out the implementation of the PSR system despite little experience. However, some findings were derived through the process of PSR implementations. For resolving these findings, the implementation cases of UK and France which have plenty of experiences in PSR were analyzed and the newly revised IAEA safety standards No. NS-G-2.10, 'Periodic safety review of nuclear power plants' was reviewed. Some improvements of the PSR system were proposed, based on this analysis and review