IMPROVING THE OPERATING TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS IN FRENCH PWR POWER PLANTS

摘要

Both Electricite de France (EDF) and French Safety Authorities wanted to clarify the nuclear safety demands during unit operation, laid down, in particular, in the General Operating Rules. As a result, a policy for improving the operating technical specifications (OTS) was defined. The objectives of improving the OTS are to simplify, to lighten if possible, to explain, to clarify and to complete, if necessary, the standard document of the OTS used by plant operators. These objectives are reached by improving the technical content and the form of the OTS document. A three-stage action plan has been drawn up: to restructure the OTS (mainly their form), to clarify the OTS policy and to improve the technical context of the OTS on the basis of the new structure and the new policy. The first stage of the action plan is nearly complete; a standard restructured document for the PWR 1300 MW series was put into application in 1995; the equivalent document for the PWR 900 MW series was submitted to the Safety Authorities at the end of 1995. The second stage of the plan will also be completed in 1996. The method for restructuring was based on feedback experience: analysis of significant operating event reports, waiver requests, international feedback and recent safety studies. After more than one year of experience on all PWR 1300 MW sites, it appears that the new OTS are widely considered to be a vector of safety culture. Clarification and simplification of the OTS enable plant operators to achieve a better quality of safety analysis and better unit safety conditions.