Technical Meeting on Risk Informed In-Service Inspection and Decision Making for Research Reactors

All research reactors (RRs) face concerns stemming from ageing equipment and components throughout their lifetime. There are approximately 240 research reactors currently in operation worldwide. 60% of the operating research reactors (RRs) are now over 40 years old. As research reactors continue to operate there is an increasing need for enhanced asset management programs that involve advanced predictive maintenance technologies for equipment monitoring, degradation and aging management.

In-Service Inspection (ISI) and non-destructive examination (NDE) play an important role in reduction of sudden breakdown and failures, improving ageing management programs and decision making. In 2019 a Technical Meeting was organized in Vienna with the participation of 23 participants from 18 Member States and IAEA staff. It was concluded that Risk-Informed ISI and decision making (RI_ISI&DM) is an attractive option, specifically for ageing and health management programme, not only for old but for new RRs also, in improving availability, reliability and safety. It was recommended that an IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the subject will be beneficial to Member States in managing the operating RRs and realizing their objectives in a cost-effective manner.

Considering the above, the IAEA is organizing this second Technical Meeting to develop a CRP.

The meeting will include presentations by the participants on their national practices and experiences in NDE and ISI, probabilistic assessments and RI-ISI&DM followed by discussions that address the following topics:

• NDE and ISI programmes, plans and schedules for structures, systems and components of RRs;
• Recent developments in OLM/NDE/ISI techniques applicable to RRs;
• Probabilistic risk assessment for Reliability, Availability and Maintenance;
• Risk informed ISI; and
• Risk informed decision making.

Grants

A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants provided that, in the IAEA’s view, the participant will make an important contribution to the event, with priority given to participants from developing countries. There is no registration fee.

Deadline for submitting nominations:  30 July 2021