On August 17-21, 2015, the AdSTM hosted nuclear engineers representing the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (VARANS) in Vienna, VA, where they received training on how to perform a regulatory review of Safety Analysis Reports (SAR) and Construction Permit Application. The course was delivered by David Squarer, Mel Fields, and Weidong He of AdSTM.
The AdSTM instructors tailored the training course to the specific interests expressed by VARANS participants, which included: site evaluation including seismic safety assessment, safety analysis chapters in the SAR, and legal documents and standards. The five-day course included a two-day overview explaining how to review construction permit (CP) application, and three days that focused on addressing specific sections of the Site SAR, FSAR and USNRC’s Safety Evaluation Report (SER).. Two U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants were discussed during the detailed review that also covered the two-step licensing process of 10 CFR Part 50, as well as the combined license process of 10 CFR Part 52. Although VARANS has received training courses from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international regulatory authorities this course exposed the trainees to the details of the U.S. NRC methodology for reviewing construction permit applications. In addition, the instructors explained the differences and similarities between the U.S. NRC regulations and IAEA requirements. At the conclusion of the five-day course the VARANS trainees provided positive comments regarding the importance of a thorough safety evaluation review by a nuclear regulatory authority, and the training they received would help VARANS outline a realistic schedule for an independent evaluation of siting and construction permit applications.