Ensuring Safe Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power is a vital part of the world's energy equation: more than 440 nuclear power plants are presently operational in 30 countries; they generate about 17 percent of the world's total electricity. With nuclear reactors straddling the globe from Korea to Argentina, the impetus to ensure nuclear safety is greater than ever. Safety standards must be universally established and maintained to ensure public safety and confidence, and to protect the environment.

The IAEA acts as a global co-ordinator in nuclear power safety, helping to establish legal conventions, fostering information exchange on safety issues, developing common safety standards and providing expert services in the field of nuclear safety. The 1996 Convention on Nuclear Safety, signed by 65 countries and ratified by a further 32 by the end of 1996, commits States to mutual reviews of the safety performance of their nuclear reactors at regular intervals.

Upon request, the Agency assists in a wide range of specialized services aimed at buttressing nuclear safety in Member States. Operational Safety Review Teams (OSARTs) enhance the safety of nuclear power plants worldwide through technical reviews and exchanges of operational experience. OSART missions identify key strengths and weaknesses in nuclear power plants and make their findings known to maximize knowledge transfer and assist other Member States. This service is complemented by Assessment of Safety Significant Events Teams (ASSET). ASSET missions review operational safety experience from the standpoint of events that have occurred. This includes investigating and identifying the immediate as well as the root causes of incidents and the appropriate courses of corrective action. ASSET services have been expanded to incorporate seminar training, assistance to plant management and execution of follow-up activities for the prevention of incidents.

IAEA's Engineering Safety Activities address concerns regarding research reactors, such as ageing, fire risk, seismic safety and plant design. Safety related advisory missions have regularly visited research reactors all over the world. To improve safety efficiency, the IAEA launched an Incident Reporting System (IRS) for research reactors. This concept of rapid event notification has been extended to incorporate all nuclear facilities and is intended to prevent similar incidents elsewhere.

The IAEA also acts as an interface between the nuclear community and the public by facilitating understanding. The Agency operates the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES), which grades nuclear incidents in an open manner. By doing so, the public can appreciate the significance of any nuclear incident and know what precautions, if any, it needs to take.