This report presents nuclear plant operator and regulatory practices in the area of severe accident management (SAM) in general and more specifically the regulation of its severe accident mitigation guidelines (SAMGs). This is accomplished by describing the content and implementation of SAMGs in the participating countries and economies. The information was compiled via a questionnaire developed by and distributed among members of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Working Party on Boiling Water Reactors (WPBWR) within the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA).
The results from the questionnaire show that most participants use the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) water level as a criterion for transfer from the emergency operating procedures (EOPs) to the SAMGs. The exact RPV water level differs between countries and reactor design, but the goal is to identify when one can expect severe core damage if the accident progression continues.