Ulchin nuclear power plant units 5&6 (UCN 5&6), which started excavation on January 1999, are two loop pressurized water reactors (PWR) with the capacity of 1000 MWe, and planned to start commercial operation on June, 2004 and June, 2005, respectively. The reactor coolant system of the UCN 5&6 consist of a reactor vessel, internals, and two steam generators, four reactor coolant pumps, a pressurizer and primary piping. Based on the system design of the first Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP), UCN 5&6 is designed to provide improvements in safety, reliability and cost by applying both advanced proven technology and experiences gained from the construction and operation of the previous KSNP plants. The result of the preliminary probabilistic safety assessment study for UCN 5&6 shows that the core damage frequency is lowered significantly. Several design improvement items have been adopted to the system design and contributed to lower the core damage frequency value. Among the design improvements, digital PPS and digital ESFAS are the key to the UCN 5&6 design. Furthermore, digitization of the Plant Protection System (PPS) and Engineered Safety Feature Actuation System (ESFAS) for the PWR is the first case in the PWR construction history. The Korean regulatory body reviewed the design concept of the digital PPS and digital ESFAS, and evaluated to be acceptable for the plant safety. Also, in-depth review on the detail design of the digital PPS/ESFAS and the special evaluation/audit for the software design process are underway to secure the software quality. The safety of the UCN 5&6 design has been evaluated through a two-year review on the preliminary safety analysis report. As a result, the construction permit was issued on May 17, 1999 by the government. In this paper, design characteristics of UCN 5&6 are discussed focussed on design improvements comparing with KSNR. And, some of the safety analysis results are presented as well as licensing status.
