Contributions of the European Operating Experience Feedback Project to Support Regulatory Bodies

Operating Experience Feedback (OEF) is one of the ways of improving the nuclear safety of operating nuclear power plants. The EC-Clearinghouse initiative was set up in 2008 to support nuclear regulatory authorities of EU Member States, but also Technical Support Organizations, international organizations and the broader nuclear community, to enhance nuclear safety. The differing regulatory regimes in the EU member countries and a significant diversity of the nuclear power plant (NPP) designs have been a challenge in the establishment of the European Clearinghouse. The European Clearinghouse is organized as a Network operated by a Central Office located at the Institute fro Energy and Transport (IET) which is part of Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. It gathers 17 European regulatory authorities and three major European Technical Support organizations (TSO). The Clearinghouse aims at providing lessons learnt, raises recommendations and identifies best practices from operational experience of NPPs based on support and commitment from the EU nuclear regulatory authorities. The objectives of the European Clearinghouse help to improve methodologies and capabilities for the assessment of unusual events in NPPs. The paper presents the main activities of the European Clearinghouse. These include (a) Topical studies providing in-depth assessment of selected topics important for the safe operation of NPPs. Statistical tools help to identify interesting subjects for these studies; (b) Quarterly reports on operating experience; (c) Training courses in the field of root cause analysis and event investigation; (d) Development, maintenance and population of a database for storage of operating experience related information and (e) Collaboration with international organizations such as IAEA and OECD/NEA on all aspects of OEF. All activities of the Clearinghouse initiative focus on providing an added value to nuclear regulation in Member States.

HEITSCH Matthias;  PEINADOR VEIRA Miguel;  BALLESTEROS AVILA Antonio; 

2017-07-31

IAEA

JRC100996

https://gnssn.iaea.org/regnet/international_conferences/2016_Vienna/03-CN-236%20Book%20of%20Contributed%20Papers.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC100996,