MINSK, 20 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian Emergencies Ministry has passed requirements for stress testing the nuclear power plant. These nuclear and radiation safety rules are stipulated by the ministry's resolution No.12 of 12 April 2017, BelTA has learned.
The document introduces requirements for stress testing (targeted revaluation of safety parameters) of the nuclear power plant throughout its lifecycle. The document also determines what data the stress tests have to produce.
The requirements take into account possible initial events taking into account the events that happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, including their combinations. The document takes into account technical requirements for stress testing European nuclear power plants (the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group's stress test specifications for Europe) and requirements for national reports on stress test results (the ENSREG's requirements for the content and formats of national reports on post-Fukushima stress tests of European nuclear power plants).
For the sake of revaluating the safety of the nuclear power plant at any stage of its lifecycle external initial events (earthquakes, flooding, extreme weather phenomena, including their combinations) have to be considered as well as consequences of the loss of safety functions due to the external initial events at the nuclear power plant site (loss of power, including complete blackout of the nuclear power plant; loss of the ultimate heat sink; a combination of the loss of power and the ultimate heat sink). Stress testing will also look into how the Belarusian nuclear power plant can handle a major accident. In particular, stress testing will take a close look at active zone cooling option safeguards and the control systems that kick in when the option to cool the active zone is no longer available, safeguards that prevent the loss of cooling functions in the spent fuel pool and control systems triggered by the loss of those functions, safeguards to secure the integrity of the protective shell and control systems to respond to the loss of such integrity.
Stress testing of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is supposed to produce a report with a number of chapters. The chapters will deal with general information about the nuclear power plant site and general parameters of power-generating units of the nuclear power plant, earthquakes, flooding, extreme weather phenomena, loss of power, loss of the ultimate heat sink, management of major accidents, and general conclusions.
The general conclusions will have to specify the measures that have been implemented to improve the reliability of the nuclear power plant, safety problems, and possible ways to bolster the safety of the nuclear power plant later on.
