Managing the ageing of fuel cycle facilities (FCFs) means, as for other nuclear installations, ensuring the availability of required safety functions throughout their service life while taking into account the changes that occur with time and use. This technical opinion paper identifies a set of...

The way in which nuclear licensees’ organisations are structured and resourced clearly has a potential impact on nuclear safety. As experience has continually demonstrated, operating organisations with a strong training programme for personnel, adequate resourcing and overall effective...

As all safety systems in the majority of existing nuclear power plants use the preferred power supply, any voltage surges in these systems could lead to common-cause failures. In the event of an unusual electrical system transient, it is essential that safety-related equipment be isolated or...

This technical opinion paper represents the consensus of risk analysts in NEA member countries on the current state of the art of human reliability analysis (HRA) in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for nuclear power plants. The paper's objective is to present decision makers in the nuclear...

CSNI Technical Opinion Paper No. 17: Fire Probabilistic Safety Assessments for Nuclear Power Plants: 2019 Update provides an authoritative review of the current status and use of the fire PSA in nuclear power plants. The report demonstrates that while fires at a particular plant site are highly...

It is a dynamic time for the nuclear power sector. Existing reactor control rooms are undergoing various forms of modernisation. New reactors are being built in many countries and advanced reactors are being designed through international co-operation to support power generation for decades to...

Feedback on operating experience from nuclear power plants is intended to help avoid occurrence or recurrence of safety-significant events. Well-established feedback systems exist on the national and international levels. One such example is the Incident Reporting System (IRS), jointly operated...

Nuclear power plant modifications may be needed for a number of different reasons. These include physical ageing of plant systems, structures and components; obsolescence in hardware and software; feedback from operating experience; and opportunities for improved plant safety, reliability or...

Errors during maintenance and periodic testing are significant contributors to plant events. These errors may not always be revealed by post-maintenance tests and may remain undetected for extended periods until the affected system is called upon to function. It is therefore important that the...

Acceptance criteria for emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) define the maximum temperature and degree of oxidation in order to avoid excessive embrittlement and hence failure of the fuel cladding, which would affect core cooling in the case of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). The criteria...