Document History of REGDOC-2.4.3, Nuclear Criticality Safety

View [HTML version of REGDOC-2.4.3, Version 1.1] [PDF version of REGDOC-2.4.3, Version 1.1 | 148 pages, 2.2 MB]

Summary

REGDOC-2.4.3, Nuclear Criticality Safety, sets out requirements for nuclear criticality safety and provide guidance on how those requirements may be met. It provides information for preventing criticality accidents in the handling, storage, processing and transportation of fissionable materials and the long-term management of nuclear waste.

This document clarifies the minimum physical constraints and limits on fissionable materials to ensure nuclear criticality safety during the construction, operation, decommissioning or abandonment of the licensed facility. It applies to operations with fissionable materials outside nuclear reactors, except for the assembly of these materials under controlled conditions (such as in critical experiments).

This regulatory document is part of the CNSC’s safety analysis series of regulatory documents, which also covers deterministic and probabilistic safety analysis and probabilistic safety assessment.

Key principles and elements used in developing this document are consistent with national and international standards. Some sections of this document are extracted from the specified standards from the American National Standards Institute, with permission of the publisher, the American Nuclear Society. Where necessary, the text has been adapted to make it applicable to Canada’s international obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and consistent with the CNSC’s regulatory requirements.

This document supersedes:

• RD-327, Nuclear Criticality Safety
• GD-327, Guidance for Nuclear Criticality Safety

Note: A "tracked changes" version of draft REGDOC-2.4.3, Nuclear Criticality Safety, which indicates where updates and amendments were made, is available upon request to cnsc.info.ccsn@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca.

Version 1.1 includes administrative updates so that references to the IAEA’s SSR-6, Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, reflect the 2018 edition.

Status

September 2020: Published

Contact information

For questions and information related to REGDOC-2.4.3, Nuclear Criticality Safety, please contact:

Directorate of Assessment and Analysis

Related links

• List of published regulatory documents
• Draft regulatory documents open for comment
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