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As part of a broader spectrum of collaborative activities underpinning nuclear materials research, the Nuclear Energy Agency is supporting worldwide efforts towards the development of advanced materials, including fuels for partitioning and transmutation purposes and accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). This state-of-the-art report on ATFs results from the collective work of experts from 35 institutions in 14 NEA member countries, alongside invited technical experts from the People’s Republic of China. It represents a shared and consensual position, based on expert judgment, concerning the scientific and technological knowledge related to ATFs. The report reviews available information on the most promising fuels and cladding concepts in terms of properties, experimental data and modelling results, as well as ongoing research and development activities. It also includes a description of illustrative accident scenarios that may be adopted to assess the potential performance enhancement of ATFs relative to the current standard fuel systems in accident conditions, a definition of the technology readiness levels applicable to ATFs, a survey of available modelling and simulation tools (fuel performance and severe accident analysis codes), and the experimental facilities available to support the development of ATF concepts. The information included in this report will be useful for national programmes and industrial stakeholders as an input to setting priorities, and helping them to choose the most appropriate technology based on their specific strategy, business case and deployment schedules.
The nuclear energy sector employs a considerable workforce around the world, and with nuclear power projected to grow in countries with increasing electricity demand, corresponding jobs in the nuclear power sector will also grow. Using the most available macroeconomic model to determine total employment – the “input/output” model – the Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency collaborated to measure direct, indirect and induced employment from the nuclear power sector in a national economy. The results indicate that direct employment during site preparation and construction of a single unit 1 000 megawatt-electric advanced light water reactor at any point in time for 10 years is approximately 1 200 professional and construction staff, or about 12 000 labour years. For 50 years of operation, approximately 600 administrative, operation and maintenance, and permanently contracted staff are employed annually, or about 30 000 labour years. For up to 10 years of decommissioning, about 500 people are employed annually, or around 5 000 labour years. Finally, over an approximate period of 40 years, close to 80 employees are managing nuclear waste, totalling around 3 000 labour years. A total of about 50 000 direct labour-years per gigawatt. Direct expenditures on these employees and equipment generate approximately the same number of indirect employment, or about 50 000 labour years; and direct and indirect expenditures generate about the same number of induced employment, or 100 000 labour years. Total employment in the nuclear power sector of a given national economy is therefore roughly 200 000 labour years over the life cycle of a gigawatt of nuclear generating capacity.
The NEA has a long tradition of expertise in the area of nuclear emergency policy, planning, preparedness and management. Through its activities in this field, it offers member countries unbiased assistance on nuclear preparedness matters, with a view to facilitating improvements in nuclear emergency preparedness strategies and response at the international level. A central approach to this has been the preparation and conduct of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series.
The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed specifically in response to member countries’ desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Exercise objectives focused on notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving ionising radiation and/or radioactive material. The exercise was held during 2015 and 2016, with 22 countries participating in the exercise.
This report summarises the major evaluation outcomes of the national and regional exercises, policy level outcomes, recommendations and follow-up activities emerging from INEX-5 and the discussions at the INEX-5 International Workshop. A set of key needs were identified in areas such as real-time communication and information sharing among countries and international partners, improving crossborder and international co-ordination of protective measures and considering the mental health impacts on populations when implementing protective measures.
The International Reporting System for Operating Experience (IRS) is an essential system for the exchange of information on safety related events at nuclear power plants worldwide. The fundamental objective of the IRS is to enhance the safety of nuclear power plants through the sharing of timely and detailed information on such events, and the lessons that can be learned from them, to reduce the chance of recurrence at other plants.
The first edition of this publication covered safety related events reported between 1996 and 1999. This sixth edition covers the 2012–2014 period and highlights important lessons learned from a review of the 258 event reports received from participating States during those years.
The IRS is jointly operated and managed by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) and the IAEA.
One of the many important lessons learnt about nuclear safety over the years has been that human aspects of nuclear safety are as important as any technical issue that may arise in the course of nuclear operations. The international nuclear community can work together to identify and address issues associated with components and systems and compare operational experiences, but identifying how human behaviour affects safety and the best approaches to examine this behaviour from country to country remains less common.
Practical experience has nevertheless shown that there are important differences in how people work together and communicate across borders. People’s behaviours, attitudes and values do not stop at the gate of a nuclear installation, and awareness of the systemic nature of culture and its deeper aspects, such as the dynamics of how values and assumptions influence behaviours, continues to evolve.
The NEA safety culture forum was created to gain a better understanding of how the national context affects safety culture in a given country and how operators and regulators perceive these effects in their day-to-day activities. The ultimate goal is to ensure safe nuclear operations. The first NEA safety culture forum – a collaborative effort between the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) – was held in Sweden in early 2018. This report outlines the process used to conduct the forum, reveals findings from the discussions and invites the nuclear community to further reflect and take action.
Following the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, several high-priority actions were initiated by the NEA to address certain technical issues at nuclear power plants. One of these actions was to prepare a status report on spent fuel pools (SFPs) under loss-of-cooling and loss-of-coolant accident conditions, which was issued in 2015, providing an overview of both SFP accidents and mitigation strategies.
The present report is a follow up to this status report, documenting the results of a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) exercise conducted by the NEA. This PIRT exercise identified SFP accident phenomena that are of high importance and yet are highly uncertain, thus highlighting their primary interest for further studies. The report recommends further support for existing experimental programmes and the establishment of a number of new programmes to focus, for example, on large-scale thermal-hydraulic experiments on the coolability of partly or completely uncovered spent-fuel assemblies and the investigation of spray cooling for uncovered spent-fuel assemblies in typical storage racks.
Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated – whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables – affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.
Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.
The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.
For the past several decades, the Nuclear Energy Agency Salt Club has been supporting and overseeing the characterisation of rock salt as a potential host rock for deep geological repositories. This extensive evaluation of deep geological settings is aimed at determining – through a multidisciplinary approach – whether specific sites are suitable for radioactive waste disposal. Studying the microbiology of granite, basalt, tuff, and clay formations in both Europe and the United States has been an important part of this investigation, and much has been learnt about the potential influence of microorganisms on repository performance, as well as about deep subsurface microbiology in general. Some uncertainty remains, however, around the effects of microorganisms on salt-based repository performance. Using available information on the microbial ecology of hypersaline environments, the bioenergetics of survival under high ionic strength conditions and studies related to repository microbiology, this report summarises the potential role of microorganisms in salt-based radioactive waste repositories.
The transition from an operating nuclear facility to the decommissioning phase is critical in the life cycle of every facility. A number of organisational and technical modifications are needed in order for the facility to meet new objectives and requirements, and a certain number of activities must be initiated to support the transition and preparation for the dismantling of the facility. Thorough preparation and planning is key for the success of global decommissioning and dismantling projects, both to minimise delays and undue costs and to ensure a safe and efficient decommissioning process.
The aim of this report is to inform regulatory bodies, policy makers and planners about the relevant aspects and activities that should begin during the last years of operation and following the end of operation. Compiling lessons learnt from experiences and good practices in NEA member countries, the report supports the further optimisation of transition strategies, activities and measures that will ensure adequate preparation for decommissioning and dismantling.
Le rapport annuel du Secrétaire général de l’OCDE aux ministres revient sur les activités de l’OCDE en 2017 et quelques temps forts de 2018. Il couvre les activités du Secrétaire général et des membres de son Cabinet, les programmes horizontaux de l’OCDE et les activités de ses directions, ainsi que celles de ses agences, entités spéciales et comités consultatifs.
Depuis plus de 50 ans, l’OCDE s'efforce de promouvoir des politiques meilleures pour une vie meilleure dans presque tous les domaines de l’action politique, de son élaboration à sa mise en œuvre. Elle s'appuie pour ce faire sur la coopération, le dialogue, la recherche du consensus et l’examen par les pairs.
Les statistiques de l’OCDE font référence dans le monde entier. Elles offrent un large éventail de données comparatives dans des domaines tels que l’économie, le commerce, l’emploi, l’éducation, la santé, les enjeux sociaux, la migration ou l’environnement.
The OECD Secretary-General's annual report to ministers covers the OECD’s 2017 activities and some 2018 highlights. It includes the Secretary-General's activities and those of his office, the OECD’s horizontal programmes and directorate activities, as well as the activities of its agencies, special entities and advisory committees.
For more than 50 years, the OECD has sought to promote better policies for better lives in almost all areas of policy making and implementation through co-operation, dialogue, consensus and peer review. The OECD is one of the world’s largest and most trusted sources of comparable statistical data on economics, trade, employment, education, health, social issues, migration, the environment, and many other fields.
The implementation of advanced nuclear systems requires that new technologies associated with the back end of the fuel cycle are developed. The separation of minor actinides from other fuel components is one of the advanced concepts being studied to help close the nuclear fuel cycle and to improve the long-term effects on the performance of geological repositories. Separating spent fuel elements and subsequently converting them through transmutation into short-lived nuclides should considerably reduce the longterm risks associated with nuclear power generation.
R&D programmes worldwide are attempting to address such challenges, and many processes for advanced reprocessing and partitioning minor actinides are being developed. This report provides a comprehensive overview of progress on separation chemistry processes, and in particular on the technologies associated with the separation and recovery of minor actinides for recycling so as to help move towards the implementation of advanced fuel cycles. The report examines both aqueous and pyro processes, as well as the status of current and proposed technologies described according to the hierarchy of separations targeting different fuel components. The process criteria that will affect technology downselection are also reviewed, as are non-proliferation requirements. The maturity of different reprocessing techniques are assessed using a scale based on the technology readiness level, and perspectives for future R&D are reviewed.
Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information provided by governments includes statistics on total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, fuel cycle capacities and requirements, and projections to 2035, where available. Country reports summarise energy policies, updates of the status in nuclear energy programmes and fuel cycle developments. In 2016, nuclear power continued to supply significant amounts of low-carbon baseload electricity, despite strong competition from low-cost fossil fuels and subsidised renewable energy sources. Three new units were connected to the grid in 2016, in Korea, Russia and the United States. In Japan, an additional three reactors returned to operation in 2016, bringing the total to five under the new regulatory regime. Three reactors were officially shut down in 2016 – one in Japan, one in Russia and one in the United States. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication’s numerous tables, graphs and country reports.
This publication contains “StatLinks”. For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.
The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed in response to NEA member countries' desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. INEX-5 was held during 2015 and 2016, and was followed by the Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) Workshop in early 2017. Representatives from 22 member countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Commission attended the workshop, where participants identified elements emerging from INEX-5 that would help improve international and national arrangements for notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving radiation or radiological materials.
The workshop was an interactive experience structured around invited presentations, moderated discussions and breakout groups that addressed the four broad topics of communication and information sharing with other countries and international partners; cross-border and international co-ordination of protective actions; mid- and long-term aspects of recovery; and connections with the work of other international organisations and networks. These proceedings provide a summary of the proposals and recommendations for future work in emergency management.
The field of emergency management is broad, complex and dynamic. In the post-Fukushima context, emergency preparedness and response (EPR) in the nuclear sector is more than ever being seen as part of a broader framework. The OECD has recommended that its members “establish and promote a comprehensive, allhazards and transboundary approach to country risk governance to serve as the foundation for enhancing national resilience and responsiveness”. In order to achieve such an all-hazards approach to emergency management, a major step in the process will be to consider experiences from the emergency management of hazards emanating from a variety of sectors.
The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) joined forces with the OECD Working Group on Chemical Accidents (WGCA), the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate’s High-Level Risk Forum (HLRF) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to collaborate on this report, which demonstrates similarities between emergency planning and preparedness across sectors, and identifies lessons learnt and good practices in diverse areas for the benefit of the international community. A set of expert contributions, enriched with a broad range of national experiences, are presented in the report to take into account expertise gathered from the emergency management of hazards other than those emanating from the nuclear sector in an effort to support and foster an all-hazards approach to EPR.