Veranstaltung

---

---

29.05.2006 - 31.05.2006 | Köln

Improving Nuclear Safety through Operating Experience Feedback

Operating experience feedback is a key element in maintaining and improving the safety of nuclear power plant operations. It also gives impetus to the design of new plants and improved performance of existing ones. Thus the feedback loop of operating experience is of high significance to licensees, regulators, technical support organisations (TSOs) and vendors.
The aim of this conference is to bring together both managers and technical level experts to discuss today's concerns, future challenges and ways forward in benefitting from available nuclear power plant operating experience in all its forms and levels for safer and more efficient nuclear power. Also, experience, needs and new developments of international operating experience feedback systems in place such as the IAEA/NEA IRS will be discussed during the conference.
The objective is to aid the participants to further develop operating experience systems and utilise them more efficiently to support safe nuclear power plant operation. Also, international organisations should receive clear messages about the crucial short- and mid-term development needs in the area of operating experience feedback and dissemination.

CONFERENCE TOPICS
The conference will include keynote speeches, technical sessions and panels. All contributions are by invitation only and key regulatory, industry and TSO persons will be involved. Ample time will be reserved for discussions following each presentation and panel with expected active participation by the audience encouraged.
Technical sessions will discuss the following topics:
- Operator, regulator and international organisations: NPP operating experiences - expectations and uses
- National and international operating experience - systems, uses and highlights - strong and weak points
- Recurring issues in operating experience: recurrence of events, problems in closing the feedback loop, human and organisational factors
- Ensuring the use of operating experience for future reactors?
- Methods and tools for analyses of operating experience
- Efficient use of NPP operating experience in safety and performance management and organisational learning

AREAS OF CONCERN
Collecting, analysing, communicating operating experience and putting the results into practice is one of the most important nuclear power plant (NPP) safety management tasks. Experience shows that learning from NPP operating experience leads to significant improvements in plant safety and performance.
In managing safety, regulators and nuclear operators need reliable information in order to prioritise their actions. Factual operating experience is one of the best sources of such information. It may be used to reveal e.g. equipment and material damage mechanisms, causes of significant plant transients, flaws in construction, design deficiencies, good and questionable operating practices, human performance issues, and organisational flaws e.g. in maintenance or training. Decision- makers also need experience and lessons learned from outside in order to make good choices.
Despite the established mechanisms and widely outspoken commitment to utilising and sharing operating experience some challenges remain. The number of recurring events, i.e. repetition of same events or repetition of the same causes in different equipment, demonstrate less than optimal use and dissemination of operating experience. Also, the high contribution of human and organisational factors in events is a topic of long-term focus. Organisations wish to get early warnings of deteriorating safety performance in order to take actions in a proactive manner. Potential challenges in future may derive from the implementation of new technologies like digital instrumentation & control, passive systems, outsourcing of tasks and the retirement of experienced personnel. The transfer of know-how and especially know-why to new staff members is a crucial point to ensure long-term safe plant operation.
Operating experience covers more than reportable events and disturbances. Reporting criteria are normally derived for the need of authorities with regard to plant level events. These criteria do not necessarily reflect the requirements of lower- level operating experience data analysis. Most of the operating experience results from lower-level events belonging to the domain of normal operation and maintenance. The systematic analysis of these events requires data collection of operational, maintenance, design and backfitting experience. This can be achieved by using and developing NPP operating and maintenance databases and efforts to analyse the information they include.
Recent challenges to the feedback of operating experience comprise the implications of risk-informed decision- making, requiring more and better statistical data to be used. Furthermore, the design of advanced reactors should also make an optimal use of the cumulated operating experience. Nuclear energy faces more challenges in the competitive environment of today: maintaining operational safety at the highest level, cost effectiveness, high availability, event-free operation and good public acceptance. An effective operating experience programme is one of the ways to address these challenges.
The Incident Reporting System (IRS), operated jointly by the IAEA and NEA, is an essential element for providing feedback from international operating experience for nuclear power plants. It ensures proper reporting and feedback of safety-significant events for the international community, so that the causes and lessons learned can be disseminated widely. A similar system has been created by WANO to provide its members with various briefings and reports based on the reported events. The maturity of these systems has shown that successful international operating experience feedback is possible and leads to results.
Despite the recognised need and importance of operating experience, there has recently been a decrease in the amount of operating experience reported especially to the IRS. There is a need to discuss where we stand with the use of operating experience and what kind of operating experience should be collected and exchanged and in what form so that an optimal added value could be brought to the end users: the industry and the regulators. It is expected that this conference could be a good forum to reach significant conclusions regarding these aspects and to find out what actions should be carried out on an international level and by which organisations.

Hinweise zur Teilnahme:
Both managers and technical experts from various disciplines are expected to attend. The purpose of the meeting is to provide a forum for an open discussion of operating experience issues to all professional sides involved: regulators, operators, technical support organisations, international organisations and suppliers of products and services.

For any additional information, please contact
the NEA secretariat or the hosting organisation:
Hosting organisation
Dr. Michael Maqua
Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH
Schwertnergasse 1
G - 50667 Köln (Cologne)
Phone +49 221 2068 718
Fax +49 221 2068 704
E-mail michael.maqua@grs.de

NEA Secretariat
Barry Kaufer
Nuclear Safety Division
OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
Le Seine St Germain
12 Boulevard des Iles
F - 92130 Issy-les Moulineaux
Phone +33 1 4524 10 55
Fax +33 1 4224 11 29
E-mail barry.kaufer@oecd.org

Registration Deadline:
15 April 2006

CONFERENCE ARRANGEMENTS

Conference chairmanship
Mr. Lothar Hahn, Technical and Scientific Director of GRS and
Prof. Jukka Laaksonen, Director General of STUK

Proceedings
The proceedings of the workshop together with a specific chapter containing the summary and con-clusions will be issued as a NEA report.

The working language of the workshop will be English.

A list of hotels in the immediate vicinity of the venue will be made available with the workshop programme.

A registration fee of planned 200 EURO is to cover the refreshments, lunches and the official dinner, as well as some other organisational expenses.

The conference is sponsored jointly by:
OECD NEA, IAEA and WANO.

---