Multinational Design Evaluation Programme

The NEA has been invited to perform the Technical Secretariat functions for the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP). The MDEP was set up to share the resources and knowledge accumulated by national nuclear regulatory authorities during their assessment of new reactor designs, with the aim of increasing harmonisation between regulatory regimes. The participating countries retain their sovereign authority over all licensing and regulatory decisions at all times.

MDEP participants recently decided to continue this multilateral effort following the successful conclusion of a pilot project launched in 2006. The pilot project addressed the licensing basis for the review of new reactor designs and component manufacturing.

Based on these positive results, a new programme of work including design- and issue-specific activities giving results in the short term has been agreed.

Design-specific activities will draw participants from nuclear regulatory agencies of countries which are actively reviewing, or preparing to review, a specific reactor design. Issue-specific, cross-cutting activities will address specific regulatory and technical challenges like the codes and standards for nuclear power plant components, multinational vendor inspection programmes, and digital instrumentation and control standards.

Membership

The national nuclear regulatory agencies of ten countries participate in the MDEP, including seven NEA members: Canada, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus China, the Russian Federation and South Africa.

Pilot project

A one-year pilot project was completed by the Steering Technical Committee in late 2007. The pilot project demonstrated that there is a significant benefit in continuing a multilateral effort to cooperate on new reactor reviews, and identified specific areas for enhanced cooperation among regulators. This report discusses how the pilot project was implemented, its conclusions, and the resulting programme of work and revised structure of MDEP going forward.

Working areas

Access to these areas is restricted to members of the MDEP policy group and its working groups. To obtain access, please contact the MDEP Technical Secretariat.

• Policy Group (PG)
• Steering Technical Committee (STC)
• Design-specific working groups
  • AP1000
  • EPR
• Issue-specific working groups
  • Codes and standards (CSWG)
  • Digital I&C (DICWG)
  • Vendor Inspection Co-operation (VICWG)
  • Working Group on Component Manufacturing Oversight (WGOMO)

Related links

MDEP Pilot project report (pdf, 141 kb)

MDEP Terms of Reference (pdf, 25 kb)

NEA Press release, 7 March 2008

NEA News article, December 2006

NEA Press release, 9 November 2006

NEA Nuclear safety programme

• Meetings


• Policy Group
• Steering Technical Committee
• Design-specific working groups
• Issue-specific working groups