REACTOR SAFETY INVESTIGATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF REGULATORY OBJECTIVES

The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nucl ear Safety is supported by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in matters of nuclear safety. Part of this task is the initiation, ma nagement and evaluation of investigations and studies which cover a br oad spectrum of regulatory aspects for nuclear power plants. The main contents of running and planned investigations are described. The inve stigation projects are assigned to the four levels of the defence-in-d epth concept for the safety of nuclear power plants. Many of the inves tigations deal with beyond-design-event sequences and issues of accide nt management. Other projects are relevant to normal plant operation a nd design basis accidents.