Standardisation of


Nuclear Reactor Designs View of the Global Nuclear Industry


By Irina Borysova I


n April this year, several major players of the nuclear industry pledged support for a cooperative effort between the industry and regulatory authorities to achieve greater


standardisation of reactor design and harmonization of design requirements across the world. A letter from the World Nuclear Association, affirming the intent of the global nuclear industry to engage through the WNA in a concerted effort to achieve greater international standardisation in reactor design, was signed by the WNA’s Director General jointly with 11 companies’ presidents and chief executives representing leading reactor vendors and major operators. The WNA, in its role as the international organization of


the global nuclear industry, has in recent months begun to focus intensively on the challenge of achieving greater standardisation in reactor designs. The industry, through the WNA, believes that steady progress toward this objective is essential if the world is to achieve success in the decades ahead in exploiting the full potential of nuclear power as a large-scale source of clean energy. Top executives’ signatures reflect a serious commitment


to supply the resources by which the industry is going to assemble its relevant expertise so as to contribute its best recommendations to a cooperative dialogue directed at the standardisation goal. The WNA vehicle for engaging on this topic is its expert


working group on Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing (CORDEL), which existed since 2007, but is now gearing up to effectively address the challenges.


CORDEL In particular, the CORDEL Group will:


■ Facilitate cooperation and intensified experience feedback within the global nuclear industry in all stages of new-build: design evaluation, certification, licensing, construction, commissioning, and long-term operation;


■ Share industry expertise on these topics with inter- governmental organizations and in support of international regulatory initiatives (especially MDEP);


■ Contribute to international cooperation among national regulators in efforts to converge toward design standardisation and harmonization of national regulatory regimes.


This letter is being transmitted to the International Atomic


Energy Agency, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the World Association of Nuclear Operators, the European Nuclear Safety Regulator Group and the Multinational Design Evaluation Program. In representing the industry on this important topic, WNA CORDEL Group is now developing its internal structure


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in order to engage with all of these parties in a productive dialogue. The CORDEL report, published in January and available


on the WNA website, explains the concept of international standardisation of reactor designs and envisages three stages by which standardisation might be achieved. The proposed conceptual three-phase programme introducing


a mutual acceptance and eventually internationally valid design approvals for standardized reactor designs. But such an evolution towards internationally valid design approvals would necessarily occur in a manner consistent with each country’s sovereignty over its own regulatory framework. Each country’s regulator would remain responsible for a comprehensive licensing and oversight process, with a streamlined design approval simply being one part of it. No aspect of the CORDEL proposal is meant to imply that any national regulatory process would be subordinated or limited by foreign decisions. The concept of standardisation means that vendors could


build their designs in every country without having to adapt the design specifically to national safety requirements. Such standardisation would have two main types of benefits: ■ It would greatly facilitate nuclear new build worldwide by giving greater efficiency and certainty to the national licensing procedures; by taking into account the fact that vendors, and nowadays also utilities, are active across borders; by helping developing countries to establish their nuclear new build programmes; and by reducing the strain on human resources on both the regulators’ and the industry’s side.


■ The second valuable effect of standardisation would be to further enhance safety by broadening the exchange of construction and operating experience among a number of reactors belonging to fleets of the same design.


The concept of standardisation does not extend to every detail


in a nuclear plant. Rather, it requires sufficient detail to enable: a) the operator to prepare specifications for the procurement of equipment, and; b) the regulatory body to determine the adequacy of a facility’s safety.


Of course, for each individual nuclear power plant a certain


degree of adaptation, dictated by site-specific conditions and other local factors, would be necessary.


Achieving reactor design standardisation will require


the combined efforts of industry, regulators, policymakers, governments and international institutions.


worldPower 2010


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