Safety of a nuclear power plant

Nuclear safety cover the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. Safety is concerned with both radiation risks under normal circumstances and radiation risks as a consequence of incidents, as well as with other possible direct consequences of a loss of control over a nuclear reactor core, nuclear chain reaction, radioactive source or any other source of radiation. ‘Radiation’ in this context means ionizing radiation. ‘Incidents’ includes initiating events, accident precursors, near misses, accidents and unauthorized acts (including malicious and non-malicious acts). ‘Safety measures’ include actions to prevent incidents and arrangements put in place to mitigate their consequences if they were to occur. ‘Nuclear security’ denotes the prevention and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities. Safety measures and security measures have in common the aim of protecting human life and health and the environment. The safety standards concern the security of facilities and activities to the extent that they require ‘security for safety’ measures that contribute to both safety and security, such as;

1. Appropriate provisions in the design and construction of nuclear installations and other facilities
2. Controls on access to nuclear installations and other facilities to prevent the loss of, and the unauthorized removal, possession, transfer and use of radioactive material
3. Arrangements for mitigating the consequences of accidents and failures,which also facilitate measures for dealing with breaches in security that give rise to radiation risks
4. Measures for the security of the management of radioactive sources and radioactive material