The EU Nuclear Safety Directive (2014/87/EURATOM (NSD)) requires member states operating nuclear facilities to perform a Topical Peer Review at least every six years. The first Topical Peer Review took place in 2017. As the first step of the review, member states have to prepare a National Assessment Report in the specified topic, which they need to publish in English as well. Then member states mutually review each other’s reports, and the public may also make comments and put questions to them. Experts are also invited by the EU to study the reports. Finally, the results of the review will be discussed by the representatives of member states and the invited experts in an international peer review workshop in the spring of 2018. The results will be summarized in a report after the workshop.
Based on the decision of ENSREG (the
nuclear safety advisory group of the European Commission consisting of
the senior officials of the nuclear authorities of the member states) the
topic of the 2017 topical peer review was ageing management. The review
had to be performed for nuclear power plants in operation or holding an
effective construction license and for nuclear research reactors above
1 MW power. The purpose of the review was to overview the national regulations,
reveal issues and good practices in the facilities, identify and share
relevant operating experiences, carry out a review of the results on European
level and to recognize common technical issues. A specification on the
scope of the review and content of the national reports was developed in
order to uniformly document the review results.
In Hungary, two facilities fell in the
scope of the review: the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and the Budapest Research
Reactor. The self-assessment part of the review was completed by both facilities
and they sent their reports to the HAEA. The HAEA reviewed the reports
and based on them and on its own assessments developed the National Assessment
Reports, which have been published both in Hungarian and English on the
HAEA website.
The review results can be summarized
as follows:
· Concerning
ageing management, the Hungarian regulations are in full compliance with
the international recommendations.
· The
HAEA follows the concept of continuous oversight also in this area, ageing
management is embedded in the regulatory licensing, inspection and assessment
activities.
· Ageing
management activities in both facilities comply with the national regulations
and also with the international requirements and good practices.
· The
facilities are prepared to manage the anticipated ageing mechanisms and
to identify and manage any unanticipated degradation.
· The
facilities are performing the activities to maintain the safe conditions
of the plant equipment on a continuous basis.
The HAEA submitted the National Assessment
Report on the topical peer review to the competent EU organizations. To download the document
please click here.