[en] An Individual Plant Examination (IPE) is a systematic examination of a nuclear power plant for vulnerabilities, or risk significant contributors. By mid 1994, all licensees of commercial nuclear power plants will have performed an IPE on their units. To date, the NRC staff has received sixty-three (80%) of the seventy-eight expected IPE submittals. Twelve IPE reviews are now complete, with twenty-two in various stages of review. This paper provides a preliminary overview and comparison of licensees IPEs to Commission objectives. Insights and findings stemming from the review program are also presented

[en] On August 8, 1985, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a policy statement on severe accidents which concluded that existing plants posed no undue risk to public health and safety. The policy statement, however, recognized the importance of past probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) activities in understanding severe accidents at nuclear power plants, and in identifying previously unrecognized severe accident vulnerabilities. Based on this observation, the NRC issued Generic Letter 88-20 (and several supplements) which required licensees of commercial nuclear power plants to perform probabilistic safety assessments of their facilities. The assessments are to consider both internal initiated (termed Individual Plant Examination (IPE)), and external initiated (termed Individual Plant Examination for External Events (IPEEE)) events. Over the next few years, seventy-eight IPE/IPEEE submittals covering 114 nuclear units will be reviewed by the NRC staff. The review will focus on the process used by the licensee in fulfillment of the IPE and IPEEE objectives prescribed in Generic Letter 88-20. This paper provides an overview of the IPE review process and summarizes program status. In addition, a discussion of preliminary IPE/IPEEE findings and proposed licensee actions that result from their IPE effort are presented. These findings will be stored in a computerized data system to be used at a later date to gain generic insight into plant behavior for different classes of plants. Generic IPE/IPEEE insights should prove useful to the NRC staff in evaluating potential strengths and weaknesses of the regulations

[en] An Individual Plant Examination (IPE) is a systematic examination of a nuclear power plant for vulnerabilities or risk significant contributors. All licensees of commercial nuclear power plants in the United States are expected to perform IPEs for their units. The IPE program is expected to benefit both the nuclear industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by providing a means by which a basic understanding of severe accident behavior can be achieved at the plant specific level. A brief overview and status of the NRC IPE program is provided in this paper

[en] Two different PWR primary blowdown system concepts that enhance core cooling during abnormal plant conditions are proposed in this paper: the Dedicated Primary Blowdown System, and the Containment Supported Primary Blowdown System. Both concepts are described and benefits of the proposed systems are explored and summarized