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Romania's review on nuclear safety does not provide enough details about seismic risk (report)
The report on the nuclear safety drawn up by Romania fully respects the requests of the European stress tests, but does not approach properly the issue of the cliff-edge effects in the running of the Cernavoda nuclear plant (south-eastern Romania), in case of earthquakes or natural hazards, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) reported on Thursday.
The report released by Romania within the so-called stress tests conducted last year in the EU-member states is considered adequate and containing a proper level of details, except for the chapter on earthquakes and natural hazards that does not approach properly the weak points, the cliff-edge effects or the measures to prevent these effects, ENSREG says.
According to ENSREG, the analysis on severe accidents is still not part of the authorization basis for the nuclear reactors currently running in Romania, but the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN) made official in Dec. 2010 the regulatory conditions in this matter. This topic is included in the process of periodic safety review (PSR).
The current PSR aims to examine all the risk factors. The seismic risk has been recently assessed, as part of the study on the earthquake risk at both units of the Cernavoda nuke plant.
The ENSREG report also reveals the fact there are evidence according to which the Cernavoda plant meets the fundamental requests on flooding design.
Regarding the assessment of the plant on the severe accident management, after the review of the national reports and the country visit, the European experts have noticed satisfying progress in the implementation of the directives on the severe accident management, alongside a significant number of changed devices in a short period. Nevertheless, according to the document, Romania should consider the following issues: the regulator should examine, for the special situation of the plant's closure, any possible weakness of the Cernavoda nuclear reactors according to the specifications of the stress tests.
ENSREG also suggests the evaluation of the procedures for emergency operations based on events and symptoms for accidents. CNCAN should transpose the requests on the severe accident management in the Romanian legislation and if possible, also the qualitative and quantitative safety objectives regarding the population's protection.
CNE Cernavoda Director Ionel Bucur told Agerpres on Jan. 25 that following the results of the stress tests, the Romanian nuke plant is among the safest in the world and the risk of a nuclear accident similar to that of Fukushima is inexistent