Towards harmonisation in licensing of future nuclear power technologies in Europe: Deliverable D1.5 – Assessment of the IAEA safety objectives in advanced fission reactors

The activities of the HARMONISE project are performed with the aim to pave the way towards approach harmonization to effective licensing of innovative fission and fusion power plants.
This report presents the results within Task 1.2. From the viewpoint of safety objectives and requirements provided in the considered high-level IAEA documents, the applicability on evolutionary and innovative designs (EIDs) has been evaluated, considering completed and on-going activities of IAEA, WENRA, and GIF. EIDs might be non-WCRs, such as SFRs, HTGRs, MSRs, LFRs, GFRs and SCWRs, and some types of SMRs. Compared to the currently operating WCRs, these designs use new features and innovative technologies, including different types of coolant, nuclear fuel, neutron spectra, and inherent safety features, as well as concepts based on modularity.
The evaluation covers in total 20 IAEA documents and it is limited to the level of General Safety Requirements (GSR) and Specific Safety Requirements (SSR). In addition, a few Specific Safety Guides are evaluated, too. The scope of the conducted evaluation is limited to safety and does not extend to nuclear security.
In this report crucial technical aspects and common functional topics are discussed, which in the evaluation have been assessed in detail. Technical aspects discussed are for example multi-module SMR concepts, factory-built and possible factory-fuelled concepts as well as cogeneration. Further functional and technical aspects are the use and assessment of passive systems, consideration of inherent safety in the implementation of defence in depth, discussion regarding the term ‘core melt’, commissioning, operation, and the consequences of low level of operating experiences.
For each considered IAEA document a review and gap analysis considering the results of similar activities have been conducted. Because these documents are of high level, large parts of them are technology neutral. For the others, e.g., SSR-2/1 (Rev. 1) dedicated proposals have been developed. Partly, additional requirements have been formulated. It should be pointed out, that these are a result of this project and therefore not binding on national or international level. It should be further noted that the reformulated requirements should not reduce the level of safety.