Several news articles have recently been published regarding the IAEA’s Generic Reactor Safety Review (GRSR) service.? GRSR is one of several services offered by the IAEA to support Member States in the application of IAEA Safety Standards.

This review, performed on the safety documentation submitted to the IAEA, provides an early evaluation of a vendor's new nuclear power plant design’s safety documentation, against the IAEA Safety Standards at the fundamentals and requirements level.

This GRSR process, completed in January 2015 for the ACP1000 reactor design and recently in April 2016 for the ACP100 and CAP1400 reactor designs, is performed by IAEA staff and an international team of senior experts. It provides a careful review of the completeness and comprehensiveness of the safety documentation in the context of addressing the selected IAEA Safety Standards. This review service does not constitute any design certification or licensing activity, as these are not among the functions of the IAEA; rather, they are the responsibility of Member States. Further, the GRSR process focuses only on the reactor being reviewed and does not make any comparisons with the safety documentation of other reactor designs.

The final GRSR report contains an evaluation of the extent to which the submitted documentation demonstrates that IAEA safety requirement objectives were addressed and included. However, there are no “pass” or “fail” statements. Further, recommendations are provided to further improve the safety documentation based on the IAEA safety standards.

To date, the IAEA has conducted 14 GRSR services for its Member States. To learn more about this and other IAEA technical safety review services, see: Safety Assessment Review Services.