A13-2-1 The safety report

The safety report (SR) is the principal document for the demonstration that the design and the construction of a nuclear plant on a specific site are such that it can be operated without undue risk to the workers and the public. 

Here the assumption is made that the SR contains the treatment of both the aspects relevant to the site and those concerning the plant (description and analysis). It must be noted, however, that in various regulatory systems, the two issues are dealt with in separate documents. It is easy to understand that this subdivision quickens the time for site selection and for preparatory work on it, however the acceptability of a site also depends on the characteristics of the plant to be installed on it. The problem is easily solved for proven plants. In different cases, various parts of the information on the plant safety characteristics must be presented in advance and inserted in the part of the SR devoted to the site. In case of separation and of advanced presentation of the part of the report relevant to the site, it will be in any case necessary to link the approval of the site to the compliance with some reasonably assumed plant characteristics. 

It has also to be noted that, for the demonstration of the plant safety, more detailed information concerning both design and analyses than is usually included in the SR is also necessary. The corresponding documents are termed support documents (following the IAEA (1979) nomenclature). In some regulatory systems (e.g. in the Italian one) these supporting documents take the form of Detailed Design Reports (DDR) which have to be submitted, for approval, to the national control body. 

While the preliminary safety report describes many plant data at the level of initial solutions and plans, the final safety report shows the plant as built (in its final form) as a result of the design, validation and modification activities. 

The content of the SR may, for simplicity, be subdivided in the following five parts  

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