Recently published guidelines for the Technical Safety Review (TSR), an IAEA peer review service, aim to streamline, harmonize and formalize the process of conducting the service, which provides an independent evaluation of safety assessment and design documentation. The updated TSR service guidelines are designed to help regulatory bodies, nuclear power plant operators, designers and technical support organizations further enhance the safety of nuclear power plants around the world.
“Since 1988, the IAEA has been providing safety review services on technical subject areas, though the services had different names over the years,” said Cornelia Spitzer, Head of the IAEA Safety Assessment Section. “The updated TSR Service Guidelines provide a concise description of the methodology, how a party can request a TSR, what to expect throughout a review and the major outcome. It also brings the different technical areas which can be peer reviewed under one uniform approach and is useful for Member States considering requesting a TSR.”
This service includes review of national requirements along with recommendations for improvement and covers six different technical subject areas: design safety, generic reactor safety, national safety requirements, probabilistic safety assessment, accident management and periodic safety review. While some IAEA services address technical areas in a high-level process-oriented approach, the TSRs focus on the content, reviewing in-depth the specific technical subject and providing concrete details of improvements needed in terms of the quality, completeness and consistency with the IAEA Safety Standards. To date, the IAEA has conducted 112 reviews in 27 countries, with additional reviews underway.
The peer reviews are conducted by a technical team of external experts led by the IAEA. A typical TSR takes between three and nine months to complete, depending on the country’s needs and the selected topics. The basis of the review is documentation provided by the country, which is reviewed against IAEA Safety Standards.
“National safety requirements vary by country, so it is important to review documents against the same set of requirements from review to review,” said Paul Amico, principal consultant at Jensen Hughes and an expert who has participated in TSRs. “The guidelines help to streamline the implementation of a TSR and to provide a consistent level of rigor in the review against IAEA Safety Standards, which represent the consensus among IAEA Member States.”
