Incorporation of Post-Fukushima Upgrades Into Severe Accident Mitigating Strategies

Abstract of the technical presentation presented at:
2018 International Severe Accident Management Conference (ISAMC 2018)
October 15–18, 2018

Prepared by:
Samuel Gyepi-Garbrah
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

Abstract:

An essential part of severe accident management is the implementation of countermeasures, or actions to mitigate the consequences of a potential severe accident at a nuclear power plant (NPP), in order to reduce radiological risks to the public and environment. These mitigation actions, together with the technical basis (a set of severe accident management strategies and enabling instructions), are developed and documented in station-specific severe accident management guidelines (SAMGs).

Existing severe accident management (SAM) programs at CANDU NPPs are being further enhanced, in response to lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear event. 

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) assures effective SAM at Canadian NPPs through an approach that includes:

• ensuring that licensees implement the requirements of REGDOC–2.3.2, Accident Management
• verifying compliance with actions related to SAM, and evaluating the implementation of site–specific SAMGs
• verifying that Post–Fukushima upgrades from lessons learned are incorporated into SAMG programs

Previous compliance activities for licensees’ SAMG programs did not have post-Fukushima upgrades incorporated into their documentation at the time of CNSC staff review. This presentation will discuss CNSC regulatory oversight related to the verification and validation of SAMG documentation with the incorporated post-Fukushima upgrades. This approach provides robust strategies to support decision making for increasing confidence in SAM effectiveness.

Keywords: Accident management, SAM evaluation, SAMG, Post-Fukushima upgrades

To obtain a copy of the abstract’s document, please contact us at cnsc.info.ccsn@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca or call 613-995-5894 or 1-800-668-5284 (in Canada). When contacting us, please provide the title and date of the abstract.