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Hands-on Training for Safety Regulators: An Insight into IAEA Support

7 June 2018
Participants from nuclear regulatory bodies around the world learned about the fundamentals of regulatory inspections for nuclear power plants during a two-week workshop organized by the IAEA in May 2018. The workshop’s classroom sessions were complemented by three days of hands-on training at the never-used Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant, about 40 kilometers northwest of Vienna. The plant was built but never commissioned and does not contain any nuclear material.The workshop, which has been conducted twice a year since 2015, included simulated regulatory inspection activities. Building capacity in this area is an important part of countries’ preparation for introducing nuclear power, and it is also valuable for strengthening the regulatory framework of countries that already operate nuclear power plants.“Assessing the effectiveness of a regulatory framework through inspections is one of the most important regulatory functions,” said Greg Rzentkowski, Director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Installation Safety, in his opening remarks at the start of the workshop. “These inspections are not only for the purpose of verifying compliance; each associated task also has a safety objective.” Understanding the safety significance of the various elements of compliance is paramount, he added. A participant examines a valve in the Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant’s condenser bay during a training exercise.The workshop focused on several areas central to the regulatory inspection process. Topics covered included IAEA safety standards, preparation, conduct, evaluation and reporting of inspections as well as the  information inspectors need to fulfil their task.“The theory part of the workshop provided us with a good background on how to perform inspections,” said workshop participant Giedrius Tusinskis, an inspector at Lithuania’s State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (second from right). ”Establishing an objective view on whether a nuclear power plant is complying with regulatory standards can be challenging, and this workshop highlighted very well what it takes to be an effective inspector.”“Inspectors should have a fundamental plan as to how they should approach a given area to check for regulatory compliance,” said Jay Hopkins, an IAEA consultant and the primary course instructor. “The exercises help the participants build observational skills and gain familiarity with the layout of a nuclear power plant in the context of conducting regulatory inspection tasks.”In the condenser bay, which is an area where steam is condensed after passing through the electricity-generating turbines, participants scanned the room to check whether various valves were positioned correctly according to the tags affixed to them. The exercise concluded with a discussion on the safety significance of the valves and other elements of the room.
“The tag exercise was especially useful in helping me understand how regulatory inspections are carried out,” said workshop participant Petra Balla, a civil engineer with the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority. “Seeing all the different areas of the nuclear power plant was an excellent experience.”
“The practical experience was very beneficial for me, as participating in exercises held in a real nuclear power plant illustrates how these tasks must be done,” said workshop participant Matthew Asamoah, a regulatory officer at the Nuclear Regulatory Authority in Ghana, which is considering introducing nuclear power. “It also opened my eyes to engineering features that I was previously unfamiliar with.”Participants toured the turbine deck where they looked at the steam-powered turbines and discussed the reactor protection system, which is designed to help the reactor safely shut down in the event of an accident. The 17 participants from 14 countries - Bangladesh, Belarus, Ghana, Hungary, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey - received certificates of completion on the last day of the workshop. The next workshop will be held in November. <br>
IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication
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Story:     Matthew Fisher
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Photos:  Dean Calma
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Participants from nuclear regulatory bodies around the world learned about the fundamentals of regulatory inspections for nuclear power plants during a two-week workshop organized by the IAEA.

Last update: 7 June 2018

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