The Reactor Harmonisation Working Group (RHWG) is mandated by WENRA to develop a harmonized approach to nuclear safety of operating Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). To achieve this, the RHWG has developed the WENRA Safety Reference Levels (SRLs) for Existing Plants. The SRLs are agreed by the WENRA members. The WENRA member states have committed themselves to implement these requirements in their respective national regulatory framework.
First SRLs have been elaborated by the RHWG in 2005, defining a total of about 300 basic requirements, grouped in 18 safety issues (e.g. "Design Basis Envelope for Existing Reactors", "Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA)" or "Operational Limits and Conditions OLC”). In 2014, the findings from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were analysed and taken into account in the revised version of the "Safety Reference Levels". A further update of the WENRA Safety Reference Levels was carried out in 2020 and published in February 2021.
- WENRA Reference Levels, January 2008
- WENRA Reference Levels, September 2014
- WENRA Safety Reference Levels for Existing Reactors 2020, February 2021
In addition, the RHWG undertakes work in the following areas:
- Annual Review of Implementations of SRLs in National Regulatory Framework: since 2011 RHWG prepares a yearly summary report – a one-page factsheet with quantitative status – restricted to WENRA. The implementation reports are publicly available and can be found here.
- Topical Peer Review (TPR): the European Union’s Nuclear Safety Directive 2014/87/EURATOM (NSD) requires the member states to undertake TPR every 6 years, with the first starting in 2017.
- Production of Guidance on technical areas such as Long Term Operation (LTO), Practical Elimination Applied to New NPP Designs and Periodic Safety Review (PSR).
- Applicability of SRLs to Small Modular Reactors and New Reactors (Report 2021, Statement 2023 etc).
Furthermore, RHWG develops safety objectives for new nuclear power plants: in 2009 WENRA published a statement concerning the “WENRA Safety Objectives for new nuclear power plants”, followed by a “WENRA statement on these objectives” in 2010. As a follow-up to the WENRA statement, the RHWG presented a report outlining safety objectives for new NPPs in 2013. Further report has been published in 2020:
- WENRA Safety objectives for new nuclear power plants, December 2009
- WENRA Statement on Safety Objectives for new nuclear power plants; November 2010
- RHWG Report on Safety of new NPP designs, March 2013
- WENRA Safety Objectives for New Nuclear Power Plants and WENRA Report on Safety of new NPP designs – RHWG position on need for revision, September 2020
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