Technical Meeting to Develop a Safety Report on the Safety Aspects of Ageing Management During Design, Construction and Commissioning of Nuclear Power Plants

Background

According to the Specific Safety Requirements publication Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/1 (Rev.1), Vienna, 2016), the design life of items important to safety at a nuclear power plant shall be determined. Appropriate margins shall be provided in the design to take due account of relevant mechanisms of ageing, neutron embrittlement and wear out and of the potential for age related degradation, to ensure the capability of items important to safety to perform their necessary safety functions throughout their design life. The design for a nuclear power plant shall take due account of ageing and wear out effects in all operational states for which a component is credited, including testing, maintenance, maintenance outages, plant states during a postulated initiating event and plant states following a postulated initiating event.

According to the Specific Safety Requirements publication Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Commissioning and Operation (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/2 (Rev.1), Vienna, 2016) the operating and maintenance procedures shall be validated to the extent practicable as part of the commissioning programme, the commissioning programme shall be sufficiently comprehensive as to provide reference data to characterize structures, systems and components and such reference data shall be retained.

Specific Safety Guide publication Ageing Management and Development of a Programme for Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-48, Vienna, 2018)contains systematic but not detailed recommendations on ageing management during design, construction and commissioning phases.

There are several Specific Safety Guides 'that address the design of certain components of nuclear power plants (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-34, No. SSG-39, No. SSG-53, No. SSG-56, No. SSG-62, No. SSG-64) also including some ageing management aspects, but there is no safety standard or other technical document that systematically and comprehensively summarizes the general and specific considerations.

Specific Safety Guide publication Commissioning for Nuclear Power Plants (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-28, Vienna, 2014) and Specific Safety Guide publication Construction for Nuclear Power Plants (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-38, Vienna, 2015) do not contain detailed information regarding ageing management.

Objectives

The meeting has the following primary objectives:

• To share lessons learned in ageing management during design, construction and commissioning;
• To collect Member States’ experience and information concerning regulation and implementation of ageing management in the design, construction and commissioning phases of nuclear power plants;
• To discuss the annotated table of contents of a Safety Report on Safety Aspects of Ageing Management During Design, Construction and Commissioning of Nuclear Power Plants;
• To collect Member States’ suggestions for the improvement of the contents of the relevant IAEA Safety Standard Series No. SSG-48 in terms of design, construction and commissioning.

Target Audience

Participation is solicited from staff members of regulatory bodies, nuclear power plant operators, utility organizations, design and engineering consultant organizations, as well as from international organizations engaged in activities related to nuclear power plant safety and regulation. To ensure maximum effectiveness in the exchange of information, participants should be persons actively involved in the subject of the meeting.

The meeting is, in principle, open to all officially designated persons. The IAEA, however, reserves the right to restrict participation due to limitations imposed by the available facilities. It is, therefore, recommended that interested persons take the necessary steps for the official designation as early as possible.  Important note: This Technical Meeting is intended for Member States with a Nuclear Power Plant under construction or in operation.

Participation & Registration

All persons wishing to participate in the event have to be designated by an IAEA Member State or should be members of organizations that have been invited to attend.

In order to be designated by an IAEA Member State, participants are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) to their competent national authority (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the IAEA or National Atomic Energy Authority) for onward transmission to the IAEA by 24 February 2023. Participants who are members of an organization invited to attend are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) through their organization to the IAEA by above deadline.

Selected participants will be informed in due course on the procedures to be followed with regard to administrative and financial matters.