Had you spoken to Robert Krivanek a year ago about where he’d be this spring, he may have asked you to reach him in Asco, Spain. A senior IAEA nuclear safety officer, he planned to conduct a safety review of the Spanish village’s two-gigawatt nuclear power plant, and help its operators meet the requirements to extend the operating lifetime of the plant’s two reactors. But Spain isn’t where you’ll find him today.
Imposed travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made safety reviews that required in person interactions and on-site observation and visits extremely difficult, if not impossible — but they’ve not stopped him and his team from being productive.
From its headquarters in Austria, the IAEA’s Long Term Operation (LTO) team has refocused its efforts from missions to enhancing and expanding a new set of guidelines for nuclear facility operators — adding guidance for long-term operating power reactors, early-phase nuclear power plant operation, and research reactors, amongst other topics. This provides useful guidance for nuclear power plant operators until missions can resume and will be an additional support tool provided by the IAEA.
Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation (SALTO) is an IAEA peer review service that offers countries with nuclear power plants a comprehensive review that directly addresses strategy and key elements for the safe long-term operation of nuclear power plants. To-date the service has conducted 45 missions for nuclear power plants and one mission for a research reactor in 17 countries around the world since its creation in 2005.
As the fleet of nuclear power plants age and their operation lifetimes are extended, there are important safety consideration to manage. These include managing physical ageing and technological obsolescence of safety equipment, implementing necessary safety upgrades, and ensuring the availability of qualified personnel.
Today, more than two thirds of all the power reactors operating worldwide have been in operation for more than 30 years. Keeping the global fleet of nuclear power plants operating is important, as roughly 10 per cent of total electricity production and a third of low-carbon electricity generation is nuclear.
“COVID-19 has not put a pause on the demand for low-carbon, reliable nuclear energy. The continued safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants is essential, so we’re employing methods beyond on-site reviews to help keep plants running safely,” said Krivanek. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has found that the long-term operation of nuclear power plants constitutes the least costly option for low-carbon generation.