Basic strategies of public protection in a nuclear power plant beyond—Design basis accident

Abstract

In the light of the new international requirements on the emergency preparedness and response to nuclear and radiological emergencies, the basics of the strategy of protection of the public in event of beyond design basis accident at a nuclear plant have been reviewed. New international requirements were issued by the IAEA in 2015 taking into account lessons learned from the accident at the NPP Fukushima Daiichi in Japan on 11 March 2011.The IAEA pays particular attention to the development of safety infrastructure in Member States embarking on a nuclear power programme. In the framework of the national projects of technical cooperation, the IAEA is actively implementing international safety requirements released in the IAEA Safety Standards. Following the IAEA safety standards for these States became mandatory. The key issue of the requirements is a demand to Member State to have a public protection strategy in place before the commissioning the first NPP. The strategy shall be based on the Generic criteria to be used in emergency preparedness and response to protect the people in emergency exposure situation-to prevent severe deterministic effects, and-to limit the risk of stochastic health effects on the reasonably achievable level.The strategy shall include1.Classification of facilities and areas according to the degree of potential radiological hazard.2.Classification of emergency planning zones around the hazardous facility.3.Classification of the status of a facility in event of an emergency.The Russian Federation takes an active part in the construction of nuclear power plants in those countries that are just embarking on a nuclear power programme, therefore, new international requirements should be considered in the design and construction of the NPPs abroad. Those requirements should be also considered in training of national personnel for the implementation of nuclear power programme.