IAEACN142/18 Towards Establishment Of European Clearinghouse On Operational Experience

iaea-cn-142/18 towards establishment of european clearinghouse on operational experience feedback v. ranguelovaa , m. bietha a ins

IAEA-CN-142/18
Towards establishment of European clearinghouse on operational
experience feedback
V. Ranguelovaa , M. Bietha
a Institute for Energy,
Joint Research Center,
European Commission,
Petten, The Netherlands
Abstract. Lessons learnt from the operational experience are
extensively used to improve NPP safety worldwide. Recent initiatives
have been taken by the US NRC to improve the effectiveness of this
process through the establishment of Operational Experience
Clearinghouse in the US NRC. At the conference on Improving Nuclear
Safety through Operating Experience Feedback that was held in Germany
2006, the EU countries, operating nuclear reactors, discussed the
possibility to establish a similar mechanism for EU region. As a
spin-off of these discussions Mr. Laaksonen, Director-General of
Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), approached in
2006 WENRA members as well as EC DG-TREN and DG-JRC to explore the
possibility and encourage the establishment of an EU Clearinghouse for
NPP Operational Experience Feedback with the support of JRC Institute
for Energy (IE). In response to his request, the IE has prepared a
vision on the way and practical means by which such a suggestion could
be materialized. The main emphasis is given on the common EU
activities which can help to optimize the use of national technical
and scientific resources for operational event analyses, improve the
communication means and ensure effective closure of the operational
experience feedback loop by submitting event safety significant
information to the right users at national regulatory authority level.
This paper outlines the possible main activities, issues and concerns
to be considered in the establishment of any mechanism to foster the
effectiveness of operational experience feedback system in the EU
countries.
1.
Introduction
Several international forums, amongst which the Conference on
Improving Nuclear Safety through Operating Experience Feedback that
was held on the 29-31 of May 2006 in Cologne, Germany[1], have
suggested that at Community level EU countries may benefit from
pulling together their efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the
operational experience feedback (OEF) process. Recognizing the
importance of this safety issue, it was suggested by some EU Member
States (MS) that EC JRC may play a central role in establishing and
running of an EU Clearinghouse for Operational Experience Feedback for
the benefit of all MS. It was felt important to use well established
JRC working mechanisms and means, as well as available EU countries
and JRC technical expertise in the field in order to promote better
cooperation, more effective use of the limited national resources of
the MSs and strengthening the EU capabilities for operational
experience analyses and dissemination of the lessons learnt. This
initiative was believed to further contribute to EU nuclear safety
practices harmonization and add clear Community value to the relevant
national efforts.
2.
Main objectives of the new initiative
The proposed action provides an integrated approach to the research
needed to strengthen the Community capabilities for assessment of
operational experience of EU nuclear power plants and promote
development of tools and mechanisms for improved application of the
lessons learnt. This could be achieved through establishment and
operation of European Clearinghouse for Operational Experience
Feedback with the following main strategic goals:
a.
Improvement of EU NPP safety through strengthening co-operation
between licensees, regulatory authorities and research and
technical support organization staff to collect, communicate,
and evaluate reactor operational events information and apply
systematically and in a consistent manner lessons learnt
throughout all EU countries.
b.
Establishment of European best-practice for assessment of NPP
operational events, through the use of state-of-the art methods,
computer aided assessment tools and information gathered from
different national and international sources, such as EU
Regulatory Authority event reporting systems, NRC Operational
Experience Clearinghouse[2], Incident Reporting System (IRS)
jointly operated by IAEA and OECD/ NEA[3], etc.
c.
Provision of EU resource base of full time staff to analyse
systematically EU OEF issues that is currently lacking from any
international system between Regulatory Authorities in EU
countries. To this end the establishment of international
networking between experts who are involved in OEF, as well as
direct links with each EU Regulatory Authority or its Technical
Support Organization (TSO) will be pursued.
d.
Support to the long-term EU policy needs on OEF, through
exploitation of the JRC and European TSO competence in research
in nuclear event evaluation methods and techniques.
The effectiveness of the operational experience feedback process in
Europe could be improved through establishment of one central point
for collection and systematic assessment of daily information on EU
NPPs operational events and distribution of selected lessons learnt to
the concerned national authorities.
3.
Main tasks and duties of the European clearinghouse on operational
experience feedback
For successful implementation of the idea of European clearinghouse on
operational experience feedback it is important that the mandate,
tasks and duties of such a clearinghouse are well defined and
specified in a way which demonstrates clearly the added value achieved
at EU level. The tasks of the clearinghouse could involve, amongst
other things:
a.
collection of operating experience directly from the European
nuclear regulators or operators, assessing the potential value of
lessons to other NPP’s, and ensuring that events relevant for the
global OEF are reported systematically and in consistent manner to
the IRS system operated by NEA/IAEA,
b.
keeping timely contacts with the authors of the incoming reports
as needed to improve the clarity and usefulness of the reported
information,
c.
providing support to the original authors in categorizations of
the European IRS reports (following the advice given in the IRS
guidelines) to ensure consistent categorization and reduce the
burden to the authors,
d.
distributing selected events to appropriate professional groups in
Europe for detail event analyses (these groups could include the
EU JRC networks, EU TSOs, appropriate research or industry
institutions). The professional groups will be set up and used on
a thematic basis. The assessment from such a group of an event may
take several days or more depending on the complexity and
significance of the particular event,
e.
evaluating the IRS reports received from outside EU and alerting
the national regulatory bodies on most important events and
significant corrective actions implemented. In addition to the IRS
reports, collecting and analyzing other information received from
international sources, where appropriate,
f.
establishing and maintaining a well organized and easily operated
electronic OE database and website based platform for exchange of
information, including powerful search functions; the database
could be accessible also to users outside EU,
g.
providing summary reports of events with similar features or
causes, conducting precursor studies of events at all European
nuclear power plants, facilitating the trend analyses and enabling
better understanding of the main patterns in operational
experience events, and
h.
disseminating information on corrective actions taken at European
facilities in response to lessons learned from experience in a
timely and tailored to the needs of different users groups manner.
The flow of information and possible interactions amongst all
concerned with the work of an European clearinghouse on operational
experience feedback is presented schematically bellow:

* available to public
4.
Involvement of EU TSO
To ensure successful implementation and functioning of a European
clearinghouse on operational experience feedback it is of utmost
importance to establish effective and powerful communication
mechanisms for exchange of information amongst the Clearinghouse, the
EU regulators, IAEA/NEA Incident Reporting System, US NRC
Clearinghouse and different professional technical groups to assess
events. Due to the limited national resources it is essential to
mobilize the right expertise in Europe for analysis of each particular
significant event from JRC networks, EU Regulators TSO, EU relevant
research and industry organizations, etc. The role of EU regulators
Technical Support Organizations such as IRSN, GRS, AVN, VTT, PSI, Rez
NRI and others will be crucial and active cooperation has to be sought
in the main filed of their competence. For many of the technical areas
the opinion or assessment of several of these TSOs may be needed, too.
Establishment of a well functioning co-operation which will maximize
the benefit from involvement of different professional groups and will
not result in excessive burdens to any of these organizations will be
one of the main challenges to be met in future.
5.
Conclusions
There are clear potentials for enhancement of the European process
used for the NPP operational experience feedback. The experience of US
NRC shows that the establishment of centralized OpE clearinghouse for
a particular region in the world can yield significant benefits both
in terms of optimized use of resources and improved feedback of
significant lessons learnt at NPPs. The USA experience can help to
foster establishment of the working mechanisms needed for the EU
Clearinghouse, however due to specificity of the different regulatory
regimes, significant diversity of the NPP designs in EU and number of
different languages used, the task for establishment of the EU
centralized clearinghouse will be more complicated and challenging and
will need strong support and high management commitment from the EU
regulators. Furthermore it will be important also to evaluate and
analyse the operational experience feedback practices in all EU NPP
operating countries to identify the best practices and build on them
when establishing a common mechanism on OEF to work in the context of
the EU.
REFERENCES
[1] Improving Nuclear Safety through Operating Experience Feedback (
Proc. Conf. Cologne, 2006), GRS, Cologne (2006)
[2] UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION, Event Assessment
(200), http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/event-assess.htm1
[3] ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, NUCLEAR
ENERGY AGENCY, Nuclear Power Plant Operating Experiences from IAEA/NEA
Incident Reporting System 2002-2205, ISBN 92-64-02294-5, OECD, Paris
(2006)