Browse by: "PRE-2014"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
This fifth report on nuclear power plant operating experience from the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System covering the 2009-2011 period highlights important lessons learnt and is based on a review of the approximately 245 event reports received from the participating countries over this period.
Future fuel cycle characteristics, feasibility and acceptability will be crucial for the continued development of nuclear energy, especially in the post-Fukushima context. Fuel cycle choices have both long- and short-term impacts, and a holistic assessment of their characteristics, cost and associated safety issues is of paramount importance. This report associates quantified impacts with foreseeable nuclear energy development in different world regions. It gives initial results in terms of uranium resource availability, fuel cycle facility deployment and reactor types. In particular, the need to achieve short doubling times with future fast reactors is investigated and quantified. The report also provides guidelines for performing future studies to account for a wider range of hypotheses on energy demand growth, different hypotheses regarding uranium resource availability and different types of reactors to be deployed.
The International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series, organised under the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM), has proven successful in testing, investigating and improving national and international response arrangements for nuclear accidents and radiological emergencies. Early INEX exercises focused on the national and international aspects of early phase management of nuclear power plant emergencies. Starting with INEX-3 (2005-2006), the international community began looking at issues concerning longer-term consequence management. In 2008, the WPNEM started preparing the INEX-4 series, which was conducted in 2010-2011 and addressed consequence management and transition to recovery in response to malicious acts involving the release of radioactive materials in an urban setting. The goal of INEX-4 was to provide a basis for enhancing emergency management through the exchange of exercise experiences from participating countries and the identification of good practices and common issues. This summary report provides general outcomes based on country responses to the INEX-4 evaluation questionnaire and suggests areas of focus for future consideration.
Meeting the growing demand for energy, and electricity in particular, while addressing the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure security of energy supply, is one of the most difficult challenges facing the world’s economies. No single technology can respond to this challenge, and the solution which policy-makers are seeking lies in the diversification of energy sources.
Although nuclear energy currently provides over 20% of electricity in the OECD area and does not emit any carbon dioxide during production, it continues to be seen by many as a controversial technology. Public concern remains over its safety and the management of radioactive waste, and financing such a capital-intensive technology is a complex issue. The role that nuclear power will play in the future depends on the answers to these questions, several of which are provided in this up-to-date review of the status of nuclear energy, as well as on the outcome of research and development on the nuclear fuel cycle and reactor technologies.
This report outlines international efforts to strengthen nuclear regulation, safety, research and radiological protection in the post-Fukushima context. It also highlights key messages and lessons learnt, notably as related to assurance of safety, shared responsibilities, human and organisational factors, defence-in-depth, stakeholder engagement, crisis communication and emergency preparedness.
As manifested by an increasingly globalised media, a nuclear accident anywhere quickly becomes a potential concern for people everywhere. It is therefore of prime importance that nuclear regulators’ communication strategies take into consideration the expectations and concerns of the public and provide sound information not only for the people of the affected country, but also for citizens worldwide. Public trust is a key element in being able to do so effectively and of particular importance when there are consequences for people or the environment. International co-operation can play a fundamental role in helping to improve crisis communication on national and global scales in the event of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency. These proceedings contain the papers, recommendations and conclusions of the workshop, which was attended by over 180 experts from 27 countries and 6 international organisations.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) Annotated Glossary is a review of concepts central to societal decision making about radioactive waste management. It records the evolution in understanding that has taken place in the group as the FSC has worked with these concepts over time. This should be a useful resource not only for new FSC participants but also for others: this annotated glossary forms a good reference handbook for future texts regarding societal aspects of radioactive waste management and its governance.
Following the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, extraordinary efforts were undertaken in Japan to implement a compensation scheme for the proper and efficient indemnification of the affected victims. This publication provides English translations of key Japanese legislative and administrative texts and other implementing guidance, as well as several commentaries by Japanese experts in the field of third party nuclear liability.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has prepared this publication in co-operation with the government of Japan to share Japan’s recent experience in implementing its nuclear liability and compensation regime. The material presented in the publication should provide valuable insights for those wishing to better understand the regime applied to compensate the victims of the accident and for those working on potential improvements in national regimes and the international framework for third party nuclear liability.
The Chemical Thermodynamics of Tin is based on a critical review of the thermodynamic properties of tin, its solid compounds and aqueous complexes, carried out as part of NEA Thermochemical Database Project Phase III (TDB III). The database system developed at the OECD/NEA Data Bank ensures consistency not only within the recommended data sets of tin, but also among all the data sets published in this series. This volume will be of particular interest to scientists carrying out performance assessments of deep geological disposal sites for radioactive waste.
Fuel transuranics (TRU) multi-recycling is a mandatory feature if both the resource sustainability and the waste minimisation objectives for future fuel cycles are to be pursued. The resulting TRU transmutation can be implemented in fast neutron spectrum reactors according to two main options commonly referred to as the homogeneous and heterogeneous modes. In this study, the two alternatives have been compared in terms of reactor core feasibility, fuel development and impact on the fuel cycle. The multi-criteria analysis indicates that there are major challenges in minor actinide-loaded fuel development, its experimental validation and possibly in its reprocessing. Both modes of recycling have an impact on the overall fuel cycle, even if at different stages, for example complex target fabrication and handling in the case of heterogeneous recycling and full core fuel fabrication in the case of homogeneous recycling. The study finds that an economic evaluation according to specific implementation scenarios should still be undertaken.
Materials research is a field of growing relevance for innovative nuclear systems, such as Generation IV reactors, critical and sub-critical transmutation systems and fusion devices. For these different systems, structural materials are selected or developed taking into account the pecificities of their foreseen operational environment. Since 2007, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has begun organising a series of workshops on Structural Materials for Innovative Nuclear Systems (SMINS) in order to provide a forum to exchange information on current materials research programmes for different innovative nuclear systems. These proceedings include the papers of the second workshop (SMINS-2) which was held in Daejon, Republic of Korea on 31 August-3 September 2010, and hosted by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI).
Refurbishment and long-term operation (LTO) of existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) today are crucial to the competitiveness of the nuclear industry in OECD countries as existing nuclear power plants produce baseload power at a reliable cost. A number of nuclear power plants, most notably 73 units in the United States (up to 2012), have been granted lifetime extensions of up to 60 years, a development that is being keenly watched in other OECD countries. In many of these (e.g. France, Switzerland), there is no legal end to the operating licence, but continued operation is based on the outcomes of periodic safety reviews.
This study analyses technical and economic data on the upgrade and lifetime extension experience in OECD countries. A multi-criteria assessment methodology is used considering various factors and parameters reflecting current and future financial conditions of operation, political and regulatory risks, the state of the plants’ equipment and the general role of nuclear power in the country’s energy policy.
The report shows that long-term operation of nuclear power plants has significant economic advantages for most utilities envisaging LTO programmes. In most cases, the continued operation of NPPs for at least ten more years is profitable even taking into account the additional costs of post-Fukushima modifications, and remains cost-effective compared to alternative replacement sources.
An important activity of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in the field of radioactive waste management is the organisation of independent, international peer reviews of national studies and projects. This report provides an international peer review of the long-term safety strategy and assessment being developed by the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, ONDRAF/NIRAS, as part of the licence application for the construction and operation of a surface disposal facility for short-lived, low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in the municipality of Dessel, Belgium. The review was carried out by an International Review Team comprised of seven international specialists, all of whom were free of conflict of interest and chosen to bring complementary expertise to the review. To be accessible to both specialist and non-specialist readers, the review findings are provided at several levels of detail.
The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (99Mo) and its decay product, technetium-99m (99mTc), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. At present, most of the global production of 99Mo is from highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets. However, all major 99Mo-producing countries have recently agreed to convernt to using low-enriched uranium targetts for the production of 99Mo. This report describes the market impact of this conversion both in terms of costs, available capacity as well as the policy actions that are needed.
This report addresses the increasingly important interactions of variable renewables and dispatchable energy technologies, such as nuclear power, in terms of their effects on electricity systems. These effects add costs to the production of electricity, which are not usually transparent. The report recommends that decision-makers should take into account such system costs and internalise them according to a “generator pays” principle, which is currently not the case. Analysing data from six OECD/NEA countries, the study finds that including the system costs of variable renewables at the level of the electricity grid increases the total costs of electricity supply by up to one-third, depending on technology, country and penetration levels. In addition, it concludes that, unless the current market subsidies for renewables are altered, dispatchable technologies will increasingly not be replaced as they reach their end of life and consequently security of supply will suffer. This implies that significant changes in management and cost allocation will be needed to generate the flexibility required for an economically viable coexistence of nuclear energy and renewables in increasingly decarbonised electricity systems.
This document contains a compilation of consensus guidance for approval of long-term operation of nuclear power plants. This guidance is presented as fundamental and key principles that should govern decisions on authorisation for long-term operation. These principles allow for differences in national regulatory strategies and expectations while ensuring that safe performance can be achieved in long-term operation.
Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies, fuel cycle developments, and projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, total nuclear generating capacity and electricity generation declined, principally because of the permanent shutdown of 12 reactors (8 in Germany and 4 in Japan) and the prolonged shutdown of reactors in Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi accident also prompted safety reviews of existing nuclear facilities and led some governments to adopt nuclear phase-out plans. Other governments remained committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix, in some cases pursuing plans to either increase nuclear generating capacity or, as in the cases of Poland and Turkey, to add nuclear generating capacity for the first time. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication’s numerous tables, graphs and country reports.
Most of the current nuclear fuel safety criteria were established during the 1960s and early 1970s. Although these criteria were validated against experiments with fuel designs available at that time, a number of tests were based on unirradiated fuels. Additional verification was performed as these designs evolved, but mostly with the aim of showing that the new designs adequately complied with existing criteria, and not to establish new limits.
In 1996, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) reviewed existing fuel safety criteria, focusing on new fuel and core designs, new cladding materials and industry manufacturing processes. The results were published in the Nuclear Fuel Safety Criteria Technical Review of 2001. The NEA has since re-examined the criteria. A brief description of each criterion and its rationale are presented in this second edition, which will be of interest to both regulators and industry (fuel vendors, utilities).
In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, questions are being raised about the future of the uranium market, including as regards the number of reactors expected to be built in the coming years, the amount of uranium required to meet forward demand, the adequacy of identified uranium resources to meet that demand and the ability of the sector to meet reactor requirements in a challenging investment climate.
This 24th edition of the “Red Book”, a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 42 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It offers a comprehensive review of world uranium supply and demand as well as data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It also provides substantive new information on established uranium production centres around the world and in countries developing production centres for the first time. Projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, are also featured, along with an analysis of long-term uranium supply and demand issues.
Safety assessment is an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on the scientific understanding and performance assessment of safety functions as well as the hazards associated with a geological disposal facility. It forms a central part of the safety case, and the results of the safety assessments provide evidence to support decision making. The goals of the NEA project on “Methods for Safety Assessment for Geological Disposal Facilities for Radioactive Waste” (MeSA) were to examine and document methods used in safety assessment for radioactive waste disposal facilities, to generate collective views based on the methods’ similarities and differences, and to identify future work. The project reviewed a number of approaches used by various national and international organisations. Following the comprehensive review, a generic safety case with a safety assessment flowchart was developed and is presented herein. The elaboration of the safety concept, the use of safety functions, the implication of uncertainties and the formulation of scenarios are also discussed.