U.S. Department of Energy Sponsored In-Depth Safety Assessments of VVER and RBMK Reactors

Throughout the 1990s the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy has worked to build capability in countries of the former Soviet Union to assess the safety of their VVER and RBMK reactors. Through this Plant Safety Evaluation Program, deterministic and probabilistic analyses have been used to provide a documented plant risk profile to support safe plant operation and to set priorities for safety upgrades. Work has been sponsored at fourteen nuclear power plant sites in eight countries. The Plant Safety Evaluation Program has resulted in immediate and long-term safety benefits for the Soviet-designed nuclear plants.