Division of Nuclear Power

Participants from 28 Member States are attending the INPRO Dialogue Forum,
held from 30 July to 3 August 2012 at the IAEA

What drives or hinders regional cooperation in building sustainable nuclear energy systems? This question is at the centre of discussions at the fourth INPRO Dialogue Forum, which opened at the IAEA today.

Some 40 technology holders and technology users from 28 Member States have come to the IAEA for a five-day dialogue forum to exchange views on the benefits and issues associated with regional cooperation in building sustainable nuclear energy systems, and specifically, to understand the standpoints of technology user and supplier countries regarding the driving forces and the impediments for such cooperation.

“This Dialogue Forum is addressing how international cooperation can facilitate the sustainable development of nuclear energy programmes in both nuclear newcomers and experienced nuclear countries”, said Luc Van den Durpel (France), who was elected Chair of the meeting. “This covers multiple facets such as R&D, security of fuel supply, human resource planning, ultimate waste management and many more”, he added.

“INPRO studies show that collaboration among countries, in particular in the area of the nuclear fuel cycle, may play a crucial role in achieving sustainable nuclear energy systems within this century” said INPRO Group Leader Randy Beatty in opening the meeting.

Giving some practical examples of cooperation in the nuclear field, Thomas Koshy, Acting Director of the Division of Nuclear Power, who heads the IAEA’s  nuclear power technology development programme, pointed out that “sharing common components and back-up resources helps to improve the availability of nuclear stations”.

The Dialogue Forum is addressing a wide range of topics including:

1. INPRO’s concept of a sustainable nuclear energy system and
   the INPRO methodology for nuclear energy system assessment (NESA)
2. Transition scenarios to sustainable nuclear energy systems,
   approaches to their assessment and the role of collaboration among countries
3. Role and benefits of innovative nuclear technologies
4. Issues of proliferation resistance and long-term human resource planning
5. Technology holders’ perspective on fuel cycle services in international markets
6. Experience of multi-national cooperation in fuel cycle back-end
7. Safety issues for future nuclear energy systems and economic indicators
   to measure benefits from cooperation among countries.

Participants have been invited to present and prioritize national perspectives on many relevant issues, including, for example, status and prospects of a national nuclear energy programme; driving forces and impediments for considering, or embarking upon, or expanding national nuclear energy programme; projections on how national nuclear energy systems could look like by 2030 and 2050 and others.

“The Forum will help us in understanding how collaboration among countries could be set up and progress to secure a ‘win-win’ situation for technology suppliers and users. It will also provide valuable inputs to the INPRO-SYNERGIES project in determining how practicable a particular strategy of collaboration is”, explained Vladimir Kuznetzov, Scientific Secretary of the meeting.

The INPRO Dialogue Forum on Drivers and Impediments for Regional Cooperation on the Way to Sustainable Nuclear Energy Systems is held on 30 July – 3 August 2012 at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna. Participating countries include Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Ghana, India, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Mongolia, Niger, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Sudan, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam and Yemen.

The forum is conducted in cooperation with other IAEA programmes, including the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Group (INIG), the Nuclear Power Engineering Section (NPES), the Planning and Economic Studies Section (PESS), the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology (NEFW), the Departments of Nuclear Safety and Security and the Department of Safeguards. It is an activity in the IAEA Technical Cooperation Project INT/2/017: "Capacity building in long-range strategic nuclear energy planning for global sustainability."

All presentations and other information will be available at the meeting webpage.

Contacts:
Vladimir Kuznetsov, Scientific Secretary
Yuri Busurin, Co-Scientific Secretary