ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA NUCLEARE
Associazione tecnico-scientifica no-profit dotata di personalità giuridica
Membro per l'Italia del Forum Atomico Europeo (FORATOM) e della European Nuclear Society (ENS) 

Also in this issue
New publications
Nuclear safety
Nuclear development
Nuclear science
Data Bank

The NEA bulletin lists new and updated material and is sent to registered users. It is also available as a rich site summary (RSS) feed.
 

NEA nuclear safety project celebrates 50 years
of operation
 

The OECD/NEA Halden Reactor Project celebrated 50 years of continuous operation with a ceremony in Oslo, Norway on 11 June 2008. Under the auspices of the NEA, the research being done in the project helps improve the safety of nuclear power plants. It is the Agency's longest-running and largest joint project with an annual budget of EUR 15 million. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/general/press/.

New publications
 

Publications on sale can be ordered at the OECD bookshop: www.oecd.org/bookshop. For bulk orders and discounts, contact neapub@nea.fr.

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.

Vient de paraître en français :

Assurer la sûreté nucléaire : la mission des autorités réglementaires
ISBN 978-92-64-99051-7. 60 pages, 287 ko.

Nuclear safety
 

The NEA has just released a new report prepared in the context of the OECD/NEA International Common-cause Data Exchange (ICDE) Project. The ICDE Project was set up to collect and analyse operating data related to common-cause failures (CCF) that have the potential to affect several systems, including the safety systems, of a nuclear power plant. The project scope currently covers the key components of the main safety systems, selected because several probabilistic safety assessments have identified them as major risk contributors in the case of common-cause failures. The new project report examines the common-cause failures of level measurement components, which monitor the liquid level in safety-relevant vessels, tanks and piping. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/jointproj/icde.html.

In order to fulfill their responsibilities to inform the public about their role in contributing to nuclear safety, regulatory bodies face increasing communication needs. At the same time, good governance and efficiency in decision making by government authorities are increasingly dependant on public trust. These twin challenges have been addressed in the course of three NEA workshops on public communication held over the past decade. In a report now available, the lessons learnt from the three workshops, their influence on the development of different approaches to public communication in NEA member countries and proposals for future NEA work in this field are examined. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/nsd/cnra/wgpc.html.

Nuclear development
 

The Joint NEA/IAEA Group on Uranium met on 16-17 June 2008 in Adelaide, Australia to begin preparations for the production of Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand, the "Red Book". Meeting participants agreed the timing and the specific arrangements for collecting the data to be used in the next edition of the Red Book. Most delegates also participated in the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy International Conference on Uranium Mining on 18-19 June, which attracted over 400 industry and government participants. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/ndd/uranium/.

The 2008 edition of the International Energy Agency's Energy Technology Perspectives includes a chapter provided by the NEA. The NEA's contribution sets out the current status of nuclear power generation (the techniques in use, the cost of generation, construction rates, education and training programmes) as well as future technology options and alternative uses of nuclear power. More information is available at www.iea.org/Textbase/techno/etp/.

Nuclear science
 

The NEA Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) reviewed the status of the major evaluated nuclear data libraries and worldwide progress in nuclear data measurement during its meeting on 4-6 June 2008 at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency research establishment in Tokai-mura, Japan. Discussions during the meeting focused on the findings of the subgroup established to identify nuclear data needs for advanced reactor systems, which has completed its work, and on the progress of two subgroups devoted to the evaluation and processing of nuclear data uncertainty information. Three new subgroups were established to examine the following areas: meeting nuclear data needs for advanced reactor systems; methods and issues for the combined use of integral experiments and covariance data; and assessing the unresolved resonance representations for neutron cross-sections and covariances. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/science/wpec/.
 

The NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) met on 25–27 June 2008 at the NEA offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. During the meeting the committee reviewed the programme of work of its five working parties devoted to scientific issues of reactor systems, scientific issues of the fuel cycle, nuclear criticality safety, nuclear data evaluation and the modelling of materials. A draft report from the Expert Group on Needs of R&D Facilities in Nuclear Science was discussed. The NSC also held an in-depth discussion on the physics and data challenges of minor actinide recycling. More information is available at www.nea.fr/html/science/.

Data Bank
 

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About the NEA

NEA membership consists of 28 OECD countries. The mission of the NEA is to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The NEA also provides authoritative assessments and forges common understandings on key issues, as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development. The information, data and analyses it provides draw on one of the best international networks of technical experts.