The first edition of the International Guidelines for the Fire Protection of Nuclear Power Plants was published in 1974. It was the first compilation of fire protection practices for nuclear power plants and generated considerable interest among fire protection specialists worldwide. In many countries, this first edition served as a model for the development of national regulations for fire protection at nuclear power plants.

A second edition was published in 1983. It added important lessons learned from insurers' loss experience and from knowledge obtained by pool engineers during plant inspections. In 1995, a group of technical specialists from eight NPF member pools began the task of again revising the Guidelines. This Steering Committee focused on incorporating contemporary fire protection techniques and developing a document that could be given to plant operators not previously insured or reinsured by the pools.

There are two significant differences between the third edition and its predecessors.  Because construction of new nuclear power plants has declined, the third edition focused less on construction issues and more on operational matters. Furthermore, it is written for pool engineers rather than nuclear operators.  It is intended that engineers will evaluate plants against the "best practices" described in the Guidelines. The goal is the improvement of fire protection at plants currently insured and at those seeking nuclear insurance for the first time.

A fourth edition of these guidelines was issued in 2006 and incoporates new technologyand the inspection experience of Pool enhineers since 1997. Many of the prescriptive recommendations of the third edition were removed to allow for the use of contemporary performance-based technology.

We are now pleased to offer a Japanese language version of the fourth edition of the guidelines for downloading.  This document was prepared by the Japan Atomic Energy Insurance Pool (JAEIP).