ISIN, the National Report on fire protection in nuclear installations has been sent to the EU

ISIN has completed the preparation of the National Report on fire protection in different types of nuclear installations, including research reactors, decommissioning plants, spent fuel storage plants and radioactive waste deposits present on plant sites.

The report was sent to the European Commission, via ENSREG, so that it could then be subjected to review by other countries.

The burden of drafting the document derives from the Euratom Directive, which establishes a community framework for the safety of nuclear plants.

The Directive requires each Member State to carry out, every six years, starting from 2017, in a coordinated manner with the other States, a national assessment on a specific topic relevant to the nuclear safety of its plants. This assessment must then be subjected to a peer review process conducted by the other States and the Commission, and any improvements identified as necessary following the review process must be implemented. All reports produced as part of the aforementioned review procedure must ultimately be made public.

This process, which is called Topical Peer Review (TPR), is coordinated by the ENSREG (European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group), the European Commission's consultative group made up of representatives of the regulatory authorities responsible for nuclear safety of the individual States and of the Commission itself. ISIN is entrusted with the task of carrying out the national assessment on the specific nuclear safety topic selected from time to time by ENSREG, and of participating in the peer review process. What is being conducted is the second cycle of the Topical Peer Review, called for this reason: TPR II, which this time concerns fire protection and affects all types of nuclear installations falling within the scope of the directive, including plants in decommissioning , including research reactors, spent fuel storage facilities and radioactive waste deposits present on the sites of the facilities themselves and related to them.

For this purpose, each country has selected some nuclear installations representative of the different types, called "Candidate Installations".

The first phase of the process concerns the carrying out by the operators themselves of self-assessments on compliance with the safety standards, provisions and fire prevention systems of the plants. The results of these assessments are verified by the competent regulatory authority which prepares the National Assessment Report - NAR. The National Report is then subjected to the peer review process. The findings of this peer review will constitute, for all countries, the basis on which to develop the national action plans (National Action Plan) for the implementation of the outcomes of the review and to implement the improvement interventions related to them.

The state of application in nuclear plants of regulatory legislation and technical standards for fire prevention and protection, which is described in the National Report, highlights a situation of diligent application by operators of national regulations and international standards on the subject. This is also thanks to a correct application of the principle of defense in depth both with regard to the protection of workers, the population and the environment, and in relation to possible releases of radioactivity as a result of a fire. The weaknesses that the evaluation process and the results of the surveillance activities that ISIN conducts on the plants have highlighted are well known by the operators who can therefore identify the necessary corrective interventions.

Furthermore, the planning of these interventions will be able to benefit from the outcomes of the peer review process that is starting at an international level, which starting from November 1st, will see the NARs of the various countries be subjected to an evaluation by a team of designated experts by individual national authorities, and to a public consultation phase.

The Report can be downloaded at the link: https://www.isinucleare.it/sites/default/files/contenuto_redazione_isin/tpr_ii_fire_protection_nar_italy.pdf