This regulation proposes the criteria and procedures on nuclear safety which shall be complied during the site selection of onshore stationary thermal neutron nuclear power plant.
The range of this regulation covers the various factors of plant sites related to operation state and accidental state (including those accidental states for which the emergency measures shall be taken) and the various factors of mutual influence between plant site and nuclear power plant, as well as all the external natural events and human induced events having important influence on safety.
The purpose of this regulation is to specify the criteria and procedures applicable to the operation state and accidental state (including those accidental states for which the emergency measures shall be taken) so as to propose the basic requirements on each the under-mentioned content:
(1) Specifying the information range of recommended plant site must be provided by the licence applicant;
(2) Evaluating the recommended plant site in order to ensure the natural phenomena and features related to plant site can be considered fully;
(3) Analyzing the population characteristics at the site area and the capacity for implementing the emergency plan within the whole expected lifetime of nuclear power plant;
(4) Determining the design basis related to plant site;
(5) Specifying the task of licence applicant during the evaluation of plant site;
(6) Illuminating the task of national nuclear safety department during the evaluation of plant site.
The general criteria listed in Article 3.1 of this regulation are used to:
(1) Select several recommended plant sites and evaluate whether they are suitable for the construction and running of nuclear power plant;
(2) Determine the safety requirements related to plant site;
(3) Evaluate the acceptability of a certain specific nuclear power plant site.
Articles 3.2 ~3.5 of this regulation are the specific criteria used for the three under-mentioned problems:
(1) Influence of the plant site area on nuclear power plant;
(2) Influence of nuclear power plant on plant site area;
(3) Influence of demographic factor.
Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 are the safety evaluation procedures used to meet the requirements of the above criteria.
The process for nuclear power plant siting generally includes the investigation and study for a large region to select one or several candidate plant sites (plant site survey) , and then detailedly evaluate those candidate plant sites. This regulation mainly considers the detailed evaluation of plant sites.
The purpose of this regulation is to evaluate those factors which are related to plant site and must be considered, so as to ensure that the combined influence of nuclear power plant and plant site within the whole lifetime will not constitute unacceptable risk . The contents of this regulation do not contain the non-radioactive environmental impact evaluation of nuclear power plant, and as for the contents of such aspect, other relevant regulations shall be complied. The contents of this regulation only include those matters about the site selection and evaluation relevant to radiation safety.
The safety of nuclear power plant constructed at the appropriate plant site may be ensured through high-quality design, construction, debugging, operation and decommissioning.
The acceptability of a plant site is closely related to the design of proposed nuclear power plant. From a safety viewpoint, if the problem related to plant site can be solved in technology, thereby the risk of nuclear power plant to residents at this area can be ensured dropping to an acceptable level during the construction and operation periods, this plant site is considered to meet the relevant requirements.
This regulation mainly considers the low probability severe events relevant to the site selection of nuclear power plant, and these events must also be considered in the design of special nuclear power plant. Those events whose consequences are light but the probabilities of occurrence are high and which may significantly increase the overall risk, shall be taken into consideration during the nuclear power plant design.
During the nuclear power plant siting, not only this regulation shall be implemented, the relevant regulations on safety supervision management of nuclear facilities, environmental protection, radiation protection and other aspects shall also be met.
The site selection is an important work during the feasibility study on nuclear power plant construction and must be performed according to the capital construction procedure.
The safety guidelines listed in Appendix I are the description and supplement to this regulation.
