STRENGTHENING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL NUCLEAR POWER INFRASTRUCTURES

The future of nuclear power will depend to a large extent on the adequacy of the infrastructure of the countries that wish to utilize it. Nuclear infrastructure includes the institutional framework and legislation within which nuclear facilities operate and the industrial, economic, social, technical and scientific capabilities to enable the secure and efficient development, management and operation of nuclear power facilities. In countries wishing to introduce nuclear power the minimum necessary infrastructure needs to be established and enhanced as the programme expands. In some countries the current infrastructure has been challenged by commercial, social and political change and requires to be enhanced to improve the safe and reliable use of nuclear power.

Many Countries are expressing interest in introducing nuclear power plants. Working with the Nuclear Power Support Group the Agency has published a brochure “Considerations to launch a nuclear power programme” This document was initially produced for the Agency Board of Governors and is now available as a brochure. Hot link to Considerations.

Guidance on the Basic Infrastructure (Hot link) and the options for sharing infrastructure (Hot link) have been prepared recently. A Document “Managing the first nuclear power plant project” (hot link) provides guidance on the issues related to the organisation and management of the work within the organisation responsible for implementing the specific project at a particular location. This document complements the information on infrastructure preparation and discusses the practical steps that need to be taken when the appropriate infrastructure has been established

The Agency has developed a document defining the Milestones in the development of a nuclear power infrastructure. This document will identify the levels of achievement in a wide range of infrastructures that need to be reached at the end of the three phases stages of infrastructure preparation described in the “Considerations” brochure. This document will be published as an NE Series document NG-G-3.1. The objective of this document is to enable Member States to assess their own level of preparedness, and to ensure that the complete range of issues to be addressed can be identified.

A significant workshop was held in December 2006, with the support of the Governments of Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia, and United States of America. This workshop provided information on the issues necessary to implement a nuclear power programme and was attended by representatives from 29 countries that do not currently operate nuclear power plants. Experienced and international speakers provided their insights into the issues, and from small group sessions a considerable amount of information on the wishes of the countries without nuclear power was obtained. (link to the CD report of the workshop) This information has provided a valuable contribution to the development of the “Milestones” document.

Another workshop/technical Meeting will be held in November 2007, at which the Milestones document will be presented and discussed. The expectation is that from this workshop further information to help Member States to assess their own level of preparedness will be obtained.

Under this project, guidance will be developed on changes to infrastructure and organisation that would improve the possibility of financing a nuclear power plant. In the light of changes in the industry, guidance will be developed on the appropriate qualities and attributes that all non government entities (designers, utilities, operators, construction companies, consultancies) should possess to ensure that their contribution to a safe, secure and economic nuclear power programme can be assured. These projects will be carried out in conjunction with Programme C and subprogramme A.3 on sustainable and innovative nuclear technology development.

Current Activities

Recent Achievements



Documents

Documents on Infrastructure are here.






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