Regulatory framework of the new NPI technological platform

Abstract

In the nuclear industry, the practical implementation of innovative projects of reactor facilities, such as NPP projects with the BN-1200 and BREST-300 reactors being developed within the new nuclear energy technological platform (NTP), is impossible without the adaptation of the existing or the creation of a corresponding new regulatory and legal framework. After the project development and licensing, the manufacture of separate elements, the NPP construction, commissioning and operation at all stages should be based on federal norms and rules (FNR) in the field of the atomic energy use. Another essential part of the work in the creation of innovative reactor facilities is scientifically based computer simulation to confirm the safety of the decisions made. The requirement to implement safety justifications with the use of software that has passed the relevant expertise is fixed at the legislative level. Thus, the processes of developing innovative NPP projects, new FNRs and advanced software (next-generation codes) should go almost simultaneously. Within the NTP framework IBRAE RAN, in collaboration with the scientific and design and engineering organizations of the industry, are developing new precision generation calculation complexes, describing in a related setting a wide range of physical processes and phenomena. The main features of the new generation software systems are multi-physical and multi-scale modeling. The FNR improvement in favor of the NTP is carried out under close cooperation between professionals and experts of Rostekhnadzor, “Rosatom” State Corporation, scientific organizations of the industry and the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as innovative projects developers. An example of such effective cooperation is the activity of the working group created by the decisions of the heads of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision and the Innovation Management Unit of “Rosatom” State Corporation in September 2015 to coordinate the work on the FNR improvement for the “Proryv” project. The WG members carried out a detailed analysis of the current FNRs and the needs of the “Proryv” Project, which allowed assessing and agreeing on the amount of necessary development of new or updating existing FNRs, as well as the priority of their development. As a result, “The List of Normative Documents regulating safety issues in implementing by organizations of “Rosatom” State Corporation the task of creating fast neutron reactors with a closed nuclear fuel cycle, to be developed or updated with prioritization and timing of their introduction into act” was agreed and accepted for further organization of work. To date, the editions of the priority FNRs have been developed and are being implemented. To detail the FNR requirements, a set of standards of “Rosatom” State Corporation has been developed and is being now approved. Thus, a reasonable approach is realized in the creation of innovative facilities, the technical solutions in which are adopted in accordance with the achieved level of science and technology and at the development stage naturally outrun existing norms and rules.