International Conference on Resilience of Nuclear Installations against External Events from a Safety Perspective - Focus on Climate Change

Background

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957 with an overall objective to “accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world.”¹ Article A. 6 of the statute authorizes the Agency to “establish or adopt…standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property.” Article A.3 of the statute authorizes the Agency to “foster the exchange of scientific and technical information on peaceful uses of atomic energy.” This conference serves as a forum for the exchange of scientific and technical information on the resilience of nuclear installations against external events. A special focus of this conference is the impact of climate change on the safety and resilience of nuclear installations.

The Agency has published multiple safety standards such as SSG-18, Meteorological and Hydrological Hazards in Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations, SSG-9, Seismic Hazards in Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations and SSG-68, Design of Nuclear Installations Against External Events Excluding Earthquakes. These standards provide requirements and guidance toward achieving safety for nuclear installations that are subjected to external events. These events include natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanic events. External events can also result from accidents at nearby facilities such as explosions, or human-induced hazards such as accidental aircraft impact.

Resilience may be defined as “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events.” In the context of external hazards, the resilience of nuclear installations is their ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to these hazards. With regard to safety, resilience can be considered to be a measure of the plant’s ability to recover to a safe state after an incident. Resilience also encompasses the development of flexible solutions that can support the response to emerging, changing, or unknown threats, as well as planning, response, and recovery strategies.

Nuclear installations have typically been designed to withstand external events by using a safety margin approach. Postulated events are defined based on historical data, expert judgment, and/or conservatively defined scenarios. Typically, the historical data used in these evaluations do not explicitly account for the effects of climate change and other non-stationarities. To strengthen the resilience of nuclear installations against external hazards, the industry must also account for factors such as the evolving nature of hazards (including the emergence of new natural and human-induced hazards), degradation of systems over time, adoption of new technologies, and changes in the size and characteristics of the population living in the vicinity of an installation. The nuclear industry should examine the impact of climate change on both planned and existing nuclear installations.

¹ International Atomic Energy Agency, Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Part 1, Section 1, Issued 2000-01-01.

Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this conference is to bring together nuclear industry representatives to share recent developments and lessons learned regarding the safety of nuclear installations with respect to external events, and to discuss methods to improve their resilience to external events. A special focus is the impact of climate change on the safety and resilience of nuclear installations. Many plants have been designed for loads resulting from natural phenomena, such as floods and high winds, based on analysis and interpretation of historical data. It is well known that climate change is affecting the severity, frequency, and other characteristics of many of these phenomena. Furthermore, changes in geological conditions (e.g., fluid injection to the Earth’s crust), land use, aircraft flight patterns, and addition of new industrial facilities lead to non-stationarity of external hazards. It is envisaged that nuclear installation owners/operators, technical service organizations, regulators, designers, research institutes and vendors (nuclear steam supply system suppliers) will attend the conference. Gathering experts from various segments of the nuclear sector for discussion and collaboration is one way the Agency promotes the exchange of scientific and technical information. This information can be used by all Member States in designing, licensing, operating, and decommissioning their nuclear installations.

The objective of the conference is to share experiences and discuss current and novel methods to evaluate the resilience and robustness of nuclear installations and radioactive waste disposal facilities against external events, particularly in the context of the changing climate. This will include existing facilities, as well as those under design, licensing, and construction. In this context nuclear facility is defined as any facility in which nuclear material is produced, processed, used, handled, stored or disposed of, if damage or interference with such facility could lead to the release of significant amounts of radiation or radioactive material. In general, nuclear installations and radioactive waste storage facilities are in separate categories. Nuclear installations are subject to authorization that is part of the nuclear fuel cycle, except facilities for the mining or processing of uranium ores or thorium ores and disposal facilities for radioactive waste. This definition includes: nuclear power plants; research reactors and any adjoining radioisotope production facilities; storage facilities for spent fuel; facilities for the enrichment of uranium; nuclear fuel fabrication facilities; conversion facilities; facilities for the reprocessing of spent fuel; facilities for the predisposal management of radioactive waste arising from
nuclear fuel cycle facilities; and nuclear fuel cycle related research and development facilities. Radioactive waste storage facilities are meant for permanent storage and retrieval of radioactive waste.

Target Audience

This conference is directed at a broad range of experts in the area of nuclear safety and natural hazard
analysis and mitigation:

• Nuclear installation operators
• Technical and scientific service organizations (structural engineers, hazard analysts, etc.) to both regulatory bodies and industry
• Natural hazard researchers
• Nuclear installation regulators
• Nuclear steam supply system vendors
• Civil protection authorities and disaster managers

Exhibitions

A limited amount of space will be available for commercial vendors’ displays/exhibits during the conference. Interested parties should contact the Scientific Secretariat by email RNI2025@iaea.org by
31 May 2025.