REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR PROTECTION AGAINST SEISMIC EVENTS IN LAGUNA VERDE NPP

J.R. Salgado-Gonzalez*, Y.R. Mamani-Alegra** * Head of Area - National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards- Mexico ** Consultant National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards-Mexico 1. Introduction The National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) is the regulatory body for nuclear matters in Mexico, and is part of the Secretary of Energy. It was created in 1979 as part of a reorganization of the national nuclear administration, along with the National Institute for Nuclear Research. Before that time, both regulation and research activities were under one and only organization. Currently in Mexico, there are two power generating reactors at Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP), these are of the boiling water type (BWR) and both combined produce 1350 electrical megawatts. Both reactors are managed by the Federal Commission of Electricity, which is the state owned utility for electricity generation. The first reactor at LVNPP was authorized to operate in 1991; therefore, it has 18 years of operating experience. The second reactor went on line in 1995. The Secretary of Energy, under the technical guidance of the regulatory body, was the institution that granted both license of operation. In 1999, both reactors had their license amended, in order to change conditions of operations for a power uprate of 5 percent of the original power. Currently, work is being done by the utility, in order to change the license of operation and obtain a power uprate change up to 15 percent more of the original rated power. The objective of this paper is to describe de regulatory framework for protection against seismic events in Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP) 2. The regulatory framework The regulation for the protection against seismic events in nuclear power plants in Mexico is based in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the United States of America (USNRC) because the Mexican law requires that the regulations of the country of the reactor supplier should be used, with the related additional requirements of the national and other international guides such as of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). At the beginning of the construction phase of LVNPP, the requirements for protection of seismic events were established in the following documents of the Code of Federal Regulations of the USNRC: the 10CFR50 including Appendix A Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities, and the 10CFR100 Reactor Site Criteria. In order to meet the requirements of these documents, the regulatory body accepted the use of the following Regulatory Guides (RG) also developed by the USNRC: Regulatory Guide 1.29 Defining seismic design classification; Regulatory Guide 1.60 Defining seismic design response spectrum; and Regulatory Guide 1.61 Establishing seismic design damping values. At the time when both reactors of LVNPP were already in operation status, in the year of 1999, the regulatory body also required the inclusion of the Regulatory Guide 1.165 Identification and Characterization of Seismic Sources and Determination of Safe Shutdown Earthquake; this addendum was to assess the changes to the Operating Technical Specifications. Specific features in the application of the regulatory requirements in LVNPP are for example: the use of the criteria described in the USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.60 to obtain the response spectrum for the design Safe Shutdown Earthquake (SSE) and the determination of the value for the safe shutdown peak acceleration, which was calculated to be 0.26 g. The value obtained for

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the Operating Basis Earthquake was derived using the same methodology, and it was calculated to be 0.14 g, which is almost half the value of the SSE. In the year of 1999 the regulatory required a Periodic Safety Review (PSR) for LVNPP. In this order the operator started a Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) of External Events, in which also considered the seismic events. There was not a specific regulation guideline established for this activity, and this analysis is still in course. Recent activities in this topic were the re-assessment of seismic events occurred in the region, they have shown that there were no adverse effects for the LVNPP safety. Following the development of new regulation, the regulatory body required to the operator, the application of the USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.166 Pre-Earthquake Planning ad Immediate Nuclear Power Plant Operator Post-earthquake Actions, this document considers the effects of high frequency ground motions, and adds the OBE Exceedance Criterion to the regulatory framework of LVNPP. Other requirement from the regulatory body is the use of the nuclear damage scale described in document of the Electrical Power Research Institute, titled NP-6695 Guidelines for Nuclear Plant Response to an Earthquake. Currently, as a consequence of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the regulatory body is reviewing the information generated in the international level, in order to determine any change or update to the current regulatory framework, this includes the related to the seismic events. CONCLUSIONS An overview of the regulatory framework for protection against seismic events in Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP) was presented. The main regulatory documents that are mandatory also were cited, and some of their applications were described. The regulatory body is currently reviewing the information developed as a consequence of the Fukushima accident in order to determine any change or update of the regulation framework related to safety, which include seismic events, this is the new challenge to work on. REFERENCES Secretaria de Energia. (2010). National Report presented by the Mexican United States to meet the requirements of the Nuclear Safety Convention. Mexico.

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