Extensive Analysis of Worldwide Events Related to the Construction and Commissioning of Nuclear Power Plants - Lessons Learned and Recommendations

Lessons learnt from past experience are extensively used to improve the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) worldwide. Although the process of analyzing operational experience is now widespread and well developed, the need for establishment of a similar process for construction experience was highlighted by several countries embarking on construction of new NPPs and in some international forums including the Working Group on the Regulation of New Reactors (WGRNR) of the OECD-NEA. This paper presents the main results of an in-depth topical study performed on events related to the pre-operational stage of NPPs. The aim of this topical study is to reduce the reoccurrence of events related to the construction, the initial component manufacturing and the commissioning of NPPs, by identifying the main recurring and safety significant issues. The main causes, root causes and contributing factors have been identified by performing a thorough analysis of more than 350 events worldwide. Events considered for this study were those which have been initiated before the first fuel loading, and detected before or even long after commercial operation. In addition to events reported on recent construction sites, past experience was mainly retrieved by screening both the construction experience database of the WGRNR and the database of the Incident Reporting System (IRS) jointly operated by the OECD-NEA and the IAEA. The analysis shows an evolution of the main causes and new trends for the NPPs currently being built, compared to the past. The conclusions of the study highlight the main lessons learned and give recommendations on what can be done to reduce the reoccurrence of these past events.

NOEL Marc;  ZERGER Benoît;  VUORIO Ulla; 

2013-03-20

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

JRC56427

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC56427,