Vietnam: Nuclear power plant must provide for the design process of the items important to safety consistent with the relevant national standards

According to Article 14 of Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, the organizations that design the nuclear power plant must provide for the design process of the items important to safety consistent with the relevant national standards and technical regulations, and the verified technological experience. The verified designing methods and technical solutions shall be applied, ensuring that the fundamental safety functions are fulfilled for all operational states and for accident conditions.

Besides, according to Article 15 of Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN, the design of equipment must take due account of the possibility of common cause failures of items important to safety, the determination and application of the requirements of the diversity, redundancy, physical separation, and functional independence. The single failure criterion shall be applied as follows:

- The single failure criterion shall be applied to each safety group;

- Each spurious action shall be considered to be one mode of failure with regard to a safety group or a safety system;

- The failure of a passive component must be considered, unless it is certified to be reliable in the single failure analysis. The failure of a passive component is very unlikely and its function would remain unaffected by the postulated initiating events.

Note: The fail-safe design shall be incorporated into the systems and components important to safety, so that their failure or the failure of a safety system support feature does not prevent the performance of the safety function.

View details at Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, effective from February 11, 2013.

Le Vy

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