DS539 - Licensing Process for Nuclear Installations

Status: STEP 7

Revision von SSG-12

Beteiligte IAEO-Komitees: NUSSC, RASSC, WASSC, TRANSSC, EPReSC, NSGC

Specific Safety Guide

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Background Information

The IAEA Safety Guide SSG-12 “Licensing Process for Nuclear Installations”, issued in 2010, has constituted an important roadmap for regulatory bodies in the development of the licensing process for nuclear installations. As is, it remains a proven guide for regulatory bodies in the majority of the licensing cases for nuclear installations. It is believed, however, that the Safety Guide’s users will benefit from an update to include adjustments and additional guidance in light of the recent developments.

The issuance of the revised version of GSR Part 1 in 2016 and the addition of GSG-12 and GSG-13 in 2018, providing up to date guidance on the organization of regulatory bodies and their regulatory functions, have made evident that a revision of SSG-12 is needed.

In addition, the Fukushima Daiichi accident, which occurred after the publication of SSG-12, resulted in lessons related to the importance of a robust licensing process by the regulatory bodies. These lessons were used to improve the licensing practices by numerous States.

This Safety Guide addresses all steps in the licensing process for nuclear installations, namely: siting and site evaluation, design, construction, commissioning, operation, decommissioning, and release from regulatory control.

It addresses all nuclear installations as defined in the IAEA Safety Glossary (2018 Edition), namely: nuclear power plants; research reactors (including subcritical and critical assemblies) and any adjoining radioisotope production facilities; conversion facilities; uranium enrichment facilities; nuclear fuel fabrication facilities; facilities for the reprocessing of spent fuel; storage facilities for spent fuel; facilities for the predisposal management of radioactive waste arising from nuclear fuel cycle facilities; and nuclear fuel cycle related research and development facilities.

The revision of the Safety Guide expands the content to include updated considerations of newly proposed reactor deployment models, in particular deployment models for SMRs, and will address matters such as factory fuelling and transportation to the final destination in a different State. “Deployment model” is understood as the approach taken for the deployment of a NPP that will impact the general ownership of the NPP, the responsibility for the lifetime of the NPP including operation, decommissioning and management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and the responsibility for liability for nuclear damage in case of a nuclear accident.

Consideration will be given to address the necessity of changes or adjustments to the licensing process in the case of licensing of first of a kind (FOAK) reactors (DPP under development Safety demonstration of first of a kind technology in reactor designs).

New Appendixes will be added to the Safety Guide with recommendations that will support regulatory bodies from different States involved in the licensing of the same installation to collaborate to reduce regulatory duplication, while maintaining independence and levels of due diligence. The recommendations may also be applied to reduce regulatory burden for designs that have been licensed by the regulatory body of one State which is proposed for a licence in a different State.