How is a Pre-Project Design Review Conducted?

Design review phases

The review process is divided into three phases:

• Phase 1: Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: This phase involves an overall assessment of the vendor’s nuclear power plant design against the most recent CNSC design requirements for new nuclear power plants in Canada as indicated in Design of New Nuclear Power Plants (RD-337) document.
  
  
• Phase 2: Pre-Project Assessment for Any Potential Fundamental Barriers to Licensing: This phase goes into further details with a focus on identifying any potential fundamental barriers to licensing the vendor’s nuclear power plant design in Canada.
  
  
• Phase 3 Follow-up:  In this phase, the vendor chooses to follow-up on certain aspects of Phase 2 findings by:
• seeking more information from the CNSC about a Phase 2 topic; and/or
• asking the CNSC to review activities taken by the vendor towards the reactor’s design readiness, following the completion of Phase 2.

Scope of a pre-project design review

The review focuses on the following areas:

• Safety and engineering:
  
  
  • high level safety principles including: defense in depth, classification of systems, structures and components, dose acceptance criteria
    
    
• Specific engineered systems:
  
  
  • Fuel design
  • Reactor control system
  • Containment
  • Reactor core nuclear design
  • Means of shutdown
  • Emergency core cooling system and emergency feedwater system
    
    
• Other important safety areas:
  
  
  • Fire protection
  • Human factors
  • Robustness
  • Safeguards and security
  • Safety analysis (deterministic and probabilistic)
  • Severe accident prevention and mitigation
  • Out-of-core criticality
  • Pressure-boundary design provisions for the primary heat transport system
  • Radiation protection
    
    
• R&D program (as part of Phase 2)