In our country, in accordance with world-wide practice, nuclear power plant safety is ensured by the systematic implementation of the concept of deeply esheloned protection based on the use of a system of physical barriers, including a fuel matrix, fuel-element cladding, boundary of the reactor coolant loop, airtight sealing of the reactor system, and radiation protection. In the Soviet Union, in contrast to other countries, an additional barrier was introduced in the construction and operation of nuclear power plants -a sanitary-protective zone separating the atomic power plant from housing developments. The results achieved in nuclear power give every basis for concluding that it is in principle possible to reject the use of part of the environment for protecting the public from the radiation effects of a nuclear power plant operating under normal conditions, i.e., the size of the sanitary-protective zone of the territory of the industrial site of a nuclear power plant can be limited in accordance with the operative law and normative base. The results of calculations and validations are presented.Our country's national policy concerning the safety of nuclear power is based on federal laws [1, 2] geared toward protecting human health and life, the environment, and property and designed to strengthen the international safety regime in the use of nuclear energy. At the present time, 31 power-generating units with a total electric power 23.2 GW, which is about 14% of the installed electricity generating capacity in the country, are in operation at ten nuclear power plants.In accordance with world-wide practice, the safety of nuclear power plants is dependent on the systematic implementation of the concept of deeply echeloned protection, based on the use of a system of physical barriers in the path of propagation of ionizing radiation and radioactive substances into the environment and a system of technical and organizational measures to shield the barriers and protect their effectiveness and to shield workers, the public, and the environment. The system of physical barriers of a power-generating unit includes the fuel matrix, fuel element cladding, boundary of the coolant loop of the reactor, and the airtight barrier of the reactor system, and biological protection.In the Soviet Union, in contrast to other countries, during the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant an additional barrier, based on the operation of chemical enterprises, was introduced -a sanitary-protective zone separating
