Study on Emergency Planning Zone Determination for CAP200 Small Modular Reactor

Abstract

Determination of the SMR emergency planning zone (EPZ) is one of the important external constraint factor of its marketing and application, which means that it is very important to formulate appropriate classification criteria and establish proper size range. In China, due to the requirement of “Criteria for emergency planning and preparedness for nuclear power plants: Part 1, The dividing of emergency planning zone.” (GB/T 17680.1-2008), for PWR nuclear power plant, its external plume EPZ should be within 7km–10km, and its internal plume EPZ should be within 3km∼5km. However, the scope of the standard for the emergency planning area is currently limited to conventional nuclear power plants, and for the current SMR, its emergency planning size is not included. In this paper, we will analyze the classification method of SMR EPZ based on the traditional Nuclear Power Plants feedback experience, including selection of source term, accident cutoff probability, determination method of the plume EPZ and the ingestion EPZ. Three typical nuclear power plant sites in China are chosen as CAP200 case study sites, including two inland nuclear power plant sites and one coastal site. The three sites can represent most of the meteorological and terrain characters of China nuclear power plants. According to the CAP200 source term and meteorological data of the sites, MACCS2 computer program is used to calculate the severe accidents consequence. Conclusions show that for the CAP200 SMR, the accident cutoff probability can be 1.0E−08 to 1.0E−07 per reactor per year, and its project dose exceeding probability in the three sites boundary is far below 30%, which directs that for CAP200 SMR, its plume and ingestion emergence planning zone is limited to the on-site area, and its off-site emergency response can be simplified.