Putting the title of this chapter another way: Is it possible to conclude that a nuclear plant is safe and, if it is, what are the conditions which make this conclusion possible?

The answer to the first sub-question is: Yes, it is possible .

The conditions for such a conclusion to be valid are:

• The plant has been conceived and built within a legal framework that provides for the regulation of nuclear activities and for the clear assignment of safety responsibilities.

• The plant site has been chosen by a competent organization, following the stringent safety and radiation protection criteria internationally available and in the spirit of trying to have the site problems solved in the most natural way by the choice made, without putting the burden to compensate for possible specific deficiencies on the plant design. The decision process has been submitted with a positive result to the examination of an independent control body, competent and accurate, without overcoming the limits of good common sense.

• The plant has been conceived, designed and built following the best internationally available criteria and standards important for safety and for radiation protection, utilizing a QA programme which ensures the correctness of the process, by competent, cautious and accurate organizations, provided with all the technical, management and financial means necessary to obtain an excellent result.

• The whole process has been submitted to the surveillance of an independent and highly competent technical control body, capable, with the cooperation of the plant builder, and as far as possible,...