Learning from operational experience and applying this knowledge promptly and intelligently is one of the ways to improve the safety of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Recent reviews of the effectiveness of Operational Experience Feedback (OEF) systems have pointed to the need for further improvement, with importance being placed on tailoring the information to the needs of the regulators. In 2007, at the request of a number of nuclear safety regulatory authorities in Europe, the Institute for Energy of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC JRC) initiated a project on Nuclear Power Plant operational experience feedback, which adopts an integrated approach to the research needed to strengthen the European capabilities for assessment of NPP operational events and to promote the development of tools and mechanisms for the improved application of the lessons learned. Consequently, a so-called “European Clearinghouse” on NPP OEF was established, which includes scientific officers from the EC JRC, a number of European nuclear safety regulatory authorities and some of their Technical Support Organizations (TSOs). The paper discusses the activities implemented in 2008 within the framework of the European Clearinghouse on NPP OEF (hereinafter called the European NPP Clearinghouse) and provides an overview of the main conclusions drawn from the safety studies performed. Outlook of the activities carried out in 2009 are given.
Fire resistance of structures, systems and components (SSC) is widely identified as a fundamental issue for fire risk assessment at nuclear power plants (NPP). It is currently supported by several national or international ambitious experimental programs. Fire risk assessment at NPPs is performed under a series of hypothesis, e.g. the fire load. A problem will arise if tests used for conformity assessment do not appropriately represent the hypothesis selected during the fire risk analysis. In this case, SSCs may possibly be not meeting the expectations related to their fire resistance capacity supposed by the fire risk analysis. Ways of tackling this issue involve a regulatory approach and adapted requirements for components. While the widespread regulatory approach consists in seeking enveloping scenarios and conservative assumptions, a better knowledge of SSCs behaviour under for NPPs typical situations may be also desirable. The Institute for Energy of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Petten (NL) launched a questionnaire with the aim of gathering opinions of regulatory bodies and their technical support organisations and manufacturers in Europe on this topic. Major goal was to estimate the relevance of the issue according to the perception of the specialists. The present paper collects the answers given by seven entities (AREVA, GRS, iBMB, IRSN, SJUB, SUEZ-TRACTEBEL, and VTT) and makes suggestions for addressing the issues identified by the participants.
The energy supply of the future in the EU will be a mix of renewable, fossil and nuclear. There are 145 nuclear power reactors in operation in 15 out of the 27 EU countries, with installed power ∼132 GWe. The age distribution of current nuclear power plants in EU is such that in 2010 most of them will have passed 20-years and approximately 25% of them 30 years of age. The decrease of energy supply from nuclear generated electricity can not always be compensated in a reliable and economical way within a short time span. For this situation utilities may be keen to upgrade the reactor output and /or to ask their regulatory bodies for longer term operation. Under the research financed in the Euratom part of the Research Directorate (RTD) of the European Commission several projects explicitly address the safe long term operation of nuclear power plants (NULIFE, LONGLIFE) and the topics proposed in the 2010 call explicitly address issues concerning component ageing, in particular non metallic components, i.e. instrumentation and cables (I&C) and concrete ageing. This paper presents an overview of the plans for long term operation (LTO) of nuclear power plants in the EU. Special emphasis is given on research activities on component ageing management and long term operation issues related to safety.
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