Nuclear criticality safety standard for a fuel reprocessing plant assuming burnup credit published by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan

Nakajima, Ken*; Itahara, Kuniyuki*; Okuno, Hiroshi  

An outline of the standard "Procedures for Applying Burnup Credit to Criticality Safety Control of a Reprocessing Facility: 2014" (AESJ-SC-F025: 2014) published in April 2015 by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) is presented. The AESJ published more than 60 Standards. However, many of them were in the field of nuclear power reactors or radioactive wastes. Ten years ago the AESJ published "Basic Items of Criticality Safety Control: 2004" (AESJ-SC-F004:2004), which prescribed basic ideas, requirements and methods on nuclear criticality safety controls of facilities handling with nuclear fuel materials in general for preventing a nuclear criticality accident. However, it did not include any specific procedures for adopting burnup credit. Therefore, a new standard was envisaged as the first Standard for fuel reprocessing plants, which clarified the specific procedures to apply burnup credit to designers, operators, maintenance persons and administrators.