An update of preliminary perspectives gained from individual plant examination of external events (IPEEE) submittal reviews

As a result of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) initiated Indiv idual Plant Examination of External Events (IPEEE) program, virtually every operating commercial nuclear power reactor in the United States has perfor med an assessment of severe accident risk due to external events. The USNRC staff has received all 70 IPEEE submittals. This paper is based on the inf ormation available for those 41 plants for which at least preliminary Techn ical Evaluation Reports have been prepared by the review teams. The goal of the review is to ascertain whether the licensee's IPEEE process is capable of identifying external events-induced severe accident vulnerabilities and cost-effective safety improvements to either eliminate or reduce the impac t of these vulnerabilities. The review does not, however, attempt to valida te or verify the results of the licensee's IPEEE. The primary objective of this paper is to provide an update on the preliminary perspectives and insi ghts gained from the IPEEE process. For most licensees the principal object ives of the IPEEE program have been met, and the program has had some impac t on improving plant safety. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights rese rved.