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Summary of the Nuclear Risk Research Center Workshop in 2019
-Improvement of Risk Management on Nuclear Power Plants-

Purpose of the Workshop

  In order to continue the safe operation of nuclear power plants, it is necessary to continuously improve the risk management processes at the utilities. The NRRC and the industry are developing technologies to support risk management following the objectives and recommended actions in the Strategic Plan and the Action Plan that were announced at the NRRC sponsored symposium in February 2018.

  This time, we organized a workshop that would allow the exchange of technical views on the NRRC and utilities’ activities, between the NRRC and domestic and international experts from the industry and regulatory authorities.

Event Information
Host Nuclear Risk Research Center, CRIEPI, in coordination with OECD/NEA WGRISK
Date January 29, Tuesday and 30, Wednesday, 2019
Venue Fukutake Hall, University of Tokyo
Participants 189 (presenters: about 20, utility experts: about 70, Nuclear Regulation Authority experts: about 15 and Atomic Energy Society of Japan)
Language Japanese-English simultaneous translation
Program

≫ Program for Workshop 2019

Summary
Opening Session

  After welcoming address by Dr. George Apostolakis, the Head of Nuclear Risk Research Center, Mr. William Magwood, Director General of Nuclear Energy Agency, OECD gave the opening address and asked for active discussion.

Session A: Enhancing Risk Assessment Technologies

  Initiatives and tasks aimed at putting the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technology into practical use were introduced.

  As for Level 1 PRA, the status of the improvement of PRA technology which was modeled on Shikoku Electric Power Company’s Ikata Nuclear Power Station Unit 3 as Japan's efforts were presented. Then, the status of PRA development and utilization in USA was reported, and issues in promoting PRA's improvement in Japan were discussed.

  As for Level 2 PRA, the status of PRA utilization in USA and OECD/NEA member countries was reported.

  After that, Japanese experts reported the guideline for Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) and the implementation guidance for fire PRA in nuclear power plant as an example of efforts to enhance PRA technology. Regarding natural external events PRAs, the Research and Development (R&D) status of earthquake and tsunami were reported by domestic and international experts. Also the development of PRA Standards in the USA was presented.

Session B; ROP (Reactor Oversight Process): An example of Risk Management

  The preparations and challenges for the full-scale introduction of ROP in FY 2020 were reported from both the utilities and the regulatory authorities.

  Experts with experiences of foreign utilities and regulatory authority made recommendations and suggestions to Japan.

Session C; Discussions on overall program

  An academic organization’s expert gave a presentation on their support for risk management activities in nuclear industry. Finally, based on the presentations and discussions in the overall program, we conducted a general discussion with all participants with moderator the Head of NRRC, Dr. Apostolakis.

Results

  In this workshop, the R&D activities of NRRC were also reported, and they were proved to be effective. NRRC also recognized that it was important to continue R&D activities on PRA in collaboration with utilities and domestic and international experts.

  To operate and utilize ROP, which will be introduced in full scale in FY 2020, we have clarified what the utilities, the regulatory authorities and NRRC should work on about PRAs.

  In addition, it was confirmed that the introduction of ROP makes it possible for the utilities and the regulatory authorities to enhance safety with the same standards, and to greatly contribute to the improvement of nuclear safety.

 

NRRC Risk-Informed Decision Making Workshop Report

 Toward the continuous improvement of nuclear safety, Nuclear Risk Research Center conducts not only R&Ds for the implementation and further development of PRA (Probabilistic Risk Assessment) but also promotional activities for application of the risk information in the operational management of nuclear power plants.

 We conducted a research on the implementation experience of Risk-Informed Decision Making (RIDM) in the United States supported by experienced experts in the US from both industry and regulation and then published a report as part of the effort.

*The report is available from the link below.
https://criepi.denken.or.jp/en/nrrc/publication.html

 We also organized a workshop inviting the US experts contributing to the report. Through this workshop, NRRC expected that key players in Japan deepened understanding of the experience and lessons learned in the US and obtain specific insights toward the proper application of RIDM in Japan.

Date June 1, 2017 (Thu.) 9:30-16:50
Place Conference Room 31, Komae Area, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI)
Participants (Lecturers)
  • ・Dr. George Apostolakis (NRRC Head)
  • ・Prof. Ali Mosleh (Director, Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences, UCLA)
  • ・Mr. Mark Cunningham (Consultant; formerly USNRC)
  • ・Mr. Rick Grantom (Consultant; formerly South Texas Project)

(Participants): Total 91

Nuclear Operators:42
(Hokkaido EPCO, Tohoku EPCO, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Chubu EPCO, Hokuriku EPCO, Kansai EPCO, Chugoku EPCO, Shikoku EPCO, Kyusyu EPCO, JAPC, J-Power, JNFL)
Nuclear Industry:15
(FEPC, JANSI, Toshiba, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy,Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)
Government Agencies:13
(Nuclear Regulation Authority, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy)
CRIEPI NRRC:21
Agenda
Key Observations and Challenges
Lecturer: Dr. Apostolakis
Organizational Infrastructure for RIDM
Risk Management Organizational Infrastructure

Lecturer: Mr. Grantom
Organizational Infrastructure - Regulatory Authority
Lecturer: Mr. Cunningham
Reactor Oversight Process
Lecturer: Mr. Cunningham
Operational Risk Management
Lecturer: Mr. Grantom

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