Demographic Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in Israel

Introduction: The work presents safety requirements, i.e. numerical criteria, for separating an NPP from population.
Background: In 1990, IEC proposed stringent demographic criteria. The criteria were adopted "temporarily" by the IAEC and, although not formally approved, were included in the outline plan for the Southern District.
Israel is one of the most densely populated OECD countries. In terms of density regions, it can be divided into two parts almost equal in area. The North with a density of over 940 people/ km2 and the South with a density of about ~50 people/km2.
Methods: The reasons for the 1990 criteria are presented, and their current validity is discussed. In light of this analysis, three principles are proposed, relating to: 1) the risk of hostile attack on the NPP, 2) safety bounds to future power stations and 3) the proper comparison, in the demographic context, between different technologies, such as LR and SMR.
Basic terms employed for the derivation of the criteria are the acceptable individual and societal risks. Established upper bounds for the risks and safety criteria are derived from the bounds. The acceptable risk is inherently probabilistic and is reinforced by the precautionary principle that adds deterministic criteria such as maximum population density near the reactor.
During the criteria derivation, comparisons are made with parallel values of other countries: United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and a distinction is made between requirements for normal operation and accident conditions.
The criteria are first defined regarding acceptable risk or dose and are compared to the engineering capabilities of the generation 3+ NPPs. Later, criteria, needed for site selection and assessment, are derived from them in terms of restrictions on population at the vicinity of an NPP.
Results : Criteria Proposal
The proposed criteria are:
• Exclusion zone within a radius of 0.8 km from the reactor
• A low-population area with no more than 25,000 within a radius of ~7 kilometers from the reactor.
• Weighted density of up to 400 people/km2
These criteria are significantly less restrictive than current ones.
Application to Israel
An initial examination shows that most of the Negev`s area meets criteria that are more severe than the ones mentioned above. On the other hand, in the coastal plain, no point meets even more relaxed criteria.
Conclusions: Demographic criteria can and should be significantly relaxed compared to current ones. However, even the proposed criteria apparently could not be met in the coastal plain by the current generation (3+) of NPPs.
The division of Israel into two areas with significantly different population density and a small intermediate area may have an impact of future technologies such as SMR and reduce their significance to Israel.