Chapter 1 - Light Water Reactor Safety: A Historical Review

Abstract

This chapter deals with light water reactor (LWR) safety. LWR safety is all about estimating the risks posed by an individual or a population of nuclear power plants (NPPs) to the public at large and the efforts to reduce these risks. The public of most concern is that which resides in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant, but also at other locations which could be affected by an accident in a NPP located anywhere. The basic goal of safety is to ensure that a LWR does not contribute significantly to individual and societal health risks. This basic goal translates to the prevention of the release of radioactivity into the environment from the NPP. A complementary aim is to prevent damage to the plant and to protect the personnel at the plant from injury or death in an accident. Since LWR safety aims to protect the public at large, it is heavily regulated. Each nuclear power country (and even some without NPPs) has regulatory commissions (bodies) that regulate every aspect of a NPP from design and construction to operation and any modifications. They require very extensive analyses, documentation, and quality control. The reactor safety design has to follow definite rules and regulations.