Technical Meeting on Economic Considerations of Asset Management for Nuclear Power Plant Operation and Maintenance

With ageing facilities and a challenging economic situation, improvements in efficiency are needed to maintain the competitiveness of nuclear power in a changing electricity market while maintaining a high level of safety. This has triggered initiatives to improve asset management in nuclear power plants (NPPs) and companies operating and maintaining NPPs.

Nuclear asset management has been defined by the US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) as: “the process for making resource allocation and risk management decisions at all levels of a nuclear generation business to maximize value/profitability for all stakeholders while maintaining plant safety”.

Given the increasing interest of Member States in improving the efficiency and competitiveness of nuclear power, there is a need to provide relevant guidance on nuclear asset management through a new IAEA document.

The purpose of this technical meeting is to:

• exchange best practices and share ideas and information regarding Member States’ activities associated with economic considerations of asset management for NPP operation and maintenance;
• explore Member States’ experiences of establishing and implementing asset management programmes in their nuclear power plants (NPPs); and
• discuss ways of improving the effectiveness of NPP asset management programmes and strategies.

The event is targeted at managers, maintenance and operation staff, personnel of regulatory bodies, human resource specialists, vendor and contractor managers involved in maintenance and operation activities, budget and finance managers, etc.
The event is open to representatives of countries with operating NPPs as well as newcomer countries.

The outputs from the event will be used to develop an IAEA guidance document on the economic considerations of asset management for NPP operation and maintenance.