International Standard Bases and Safety Classification - Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation and Control Systems for Safety and Security - page 33

IAEA STANDARD BASE

• IAEA 50-C-D: Basic document of IAEA

on NPP design (IAEA, 1988).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
created in Vienna in 1957, is an international
intergovernmental organization bound with the
Agreement with United Nations Organization
(UN). The agreement stipulates that IAEA acts as
an autonomous international organization, being
in working relations with UN.
The objectives of the Agency are determined
in its statute: “Article II: Objectives. The Agency
shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution
of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity
throughout the world. It shall ensure, so far as it is
able, that assistance provided by it or at its request
or under its supervision or control is not used in
such a way as to further any military purpose”
(IAEA, 2013,b).
IAEA activities consist in providing emer-
gency intervention in case of accidents, technical
cooperation, information exchange, personnel
training, and also in development of IAEA safety
documents.

• IAEA-50-SG-D3: Document, containing

requirements for protection systems and
other control systems (IAEA, 1980).

• IAEA 50-SG-D8: Document, containing

requirements for I&C important to safety,
but not included in protection systems
(IAEA, 1984).

These document played a significant role in
NPP I&C development in different countries.
Since 1996 the system of standards has been
replaced by IAEA Safety Standards Series. Stan-
dards of the series “Nuclear Safety” included three
groups that were applied to NPP I&C:

• “Safety Fundamentals”: Setting main ob-

jectives, concepts and principles of safety
assurance.

• “Safety Requirements”: Setting require-

ments that must be met for safety assur-
ance. They are expressed in imperative
form and deined by objectives and princi-
ples represented in “Safety Fundamentals.”

IAEA Safety Standards Series

• “Safety Guides”: Containing recom-

mendations based on international expe-
rience. These documents are less formal
than “Safety Requirements” and specify
actions, conditions and procedures to be
complied with safety requirements.

According to the statute, IAEA determines safety
standards and provides for their application. IAEA
standards reflect the best experience and practices
of countries, using nuclear power, and, as one of
the main tasks, are intended to support formation
of a proper national normative base.
From a legal point of view, IAEA standards
are not mandatory for IAEA member countries,
but can be adopted by their own choice.
IAEA safety standards were always combined
by a certain family. Skipping a family of the stan-
dards that had been acting till 1996, let us men-
tion that some of them were of direct relevance
to NPP I&C:

Besides the group classification, standards
are divided by topics: “NPP Design;” “NPP
Operation.”
By topic “NPP Design” and in group “Safety
Requirements” let us note IAEA NS-R-1 “Safety
of nuclear power plants: design. Safety require-
ments” (IAEA, 2000,a) that contains a separate
section with I&C requirements, and also a set of