Nuclear Energy Agency Online Bulletin

Covers new material for February 2007:

New publications
Nuclear safety
Radiological protection
Legal affairs
Nuclear science
Data Bank

NEA publications

Publications on sale can be ordered at the OECD bookshop: www.oecd.org/scripts/publications/bookshop/redirect.asp.

Engineered Barrier Systems (EBS) in the Safety Case: The Role of Modelling
Workshop Proceedings, La Coruna, Spain, 24-26 August 2005
ISBN 978-92-64-00664-5. Price: €45, US$60, £32, ¥6 200. 191 pages.

Innovation in Nuclear Energy Technology
ISBN 978-92-64-00644-7. Price: €45, US$60, £32, ¥6 200. 118 pages.

Nuclear Law Bulletin No. 78
ISSN 0304-341X. 2007 subscription (two issues and their supplements):
€99, US$125, £68, ¥13 400.

Free publications are available at www.nea.fr/html/pub/webpubs/. Paper copies may be requested by sending an e-mail to neapub@nea.fr.

Environmental Radiological Protection in the Law
A Baseline Survey
ISBN 978-92-64-99000-5. 62 pages (302 kb).

Pressurised Water Reactor MOX/UO2 Core Transient Benchmark
Final Report
ISBN 92-64-02330-5. 71 pages (885 kb).

Reference Values for Nuclear Criticality Safety
ISBN 92-64-02333-X. 68 pages (3.5 mb).

Nuclear safety

The NEA will hold a workshop on the Inspection of Digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C) Systems Important to Safety on 24-26 September 2007 in Garching, Germany. The objectives of the workshop are to: bring together I&C experts and regulatory inspectors to review current regulatory practices and experience with licensing digital I&C systems; enhance the dialogue between I&C experts, licensees and regulatory inspectors; and develop best practices for inspecting digital I&C safety systems.

Related links

Documents from the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA)
Documents from the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI)
Forthcoming workshops and seminars

Radiological protection

The NEA Expert Group on the Implications of ICRP Recommendations (EGIR) met on 20-21 February 2007 in Paris, France to assess what is likely to be the last draft ICRP general recommendations on radiological protection before publication. EGIR members appreciated the new ICRP approach because it focuses more on the role of optimisation in radiological protection. The new draft ICRP recommendations also make no distinction between practice and intervention, instead setting out a single approach to planned, emergency and existing radiological exposure situations. Group members have compiled a list of comments on the draft recommendations, which will be sent to the ICRP. While they consider the new draft recommendations an improvement on previous versions, EGIR members believe they need further revision in order to be completely internally consistent. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/rp/egir.html.

The NEA Expert Group on the Public Health Perspective in Radiological Protection (EGPH) held its first meeting on 27-28 February 2007 at NEA headquarters. Group members are preparing a workshop to explore how a broad public health perspective might affect radiological protection decision making. They propose that a series of case studies should be developed ahead of the workshop, to be held in early 2009. The case studies will address such issues as domestic radon exposure, medical screening and dealing with individual differences. EGPH members suggested that a broad range of stakeholders be invited to the workshop in order to ensure that the widest possible range of perspectives and views are represented.

Legal affairs

The NEA Nuclear Law Committee (NLC) celebrated its 50th anniversary in February 2007. To mark the occasion, a colloquium was organised in conjunction with the committee’s regular meeting on 6 February 2007 in Paris, France. After a welcoming address by NEA Director-General Luis Echávarri, Professor Norbert Pelzer (Germany), Mr. Marc Léger (France) and Ms. Julia Schwartz, NEA Head of Legal Affairs, gave presentations on the past, present and future of the NLC and nuclear law in general. Those attending included nearly all former NLC chairpersons and former heads of NEA Legal Affairs. The proceedings of the colloquium will be published on the NEA website in due course.

Nuclear science

Members of the NEA Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC) met on 29 January 2007 in Paris, France to review the working party's ongoing programme of work and to decide on its future activities. They also approved the launch of a benchmark exercise to study thermal-hydraulic loop models for lead-alloy cooled advanced nuclear energy systems. A report describing transition scenarios from current to advanced fuel cycles is currently being finalised for publication. The associated benchmark study of regional transition scenarios has been expanded to four scenarios involving four groups of countries. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/science/wpfc/.

The NEA Working Party on Scientific Issues in Reactor Systems (WPRS) met on 31 January 2007 at NEA headquarters. This meeting was held in conjunction with the meeting of the NEA Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition (TFRPD) held the previous day. WPRS members discussed progress in reactor physics, radiation shielding and fuel behaviour benchmark exercises either based on experiments or of a theoretical nature. These meetings were followed on 1-2 February by a workshop on coupled neutronics/thermal-fluid dynamics exercises for the pebble bed modular reactor design. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/science/wprs/.

Data Bank

Computer program services

The co-operative arrangement in the field of nuclear data and computer programs between the US Department of Energy and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency is now fully implemented. As a result, the NEA Data Bank is exchanging computer codes and data with the Energy Science and Technology Software Center, the National Nuclear Data Center and the Radiation Safety Information Computational Center. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/general/press/press-kits/data-bank.html.

A page listing all new programs in the last 12 months can be found at: www.nea.fr/html/dbprog/cpsnew.html. Detailed news concerning the computer program service is available at: www.nea.fr/html/dbprog/Newsletter/Whatsnew.htm.

Instructions on retrieving material from the NEA may be found at www.nea.fr. Please note that scientific database access is only available to residents of OECD/NEA Data Bank member countries.