Speaker: Richard Reister; Office of International Nuclear Safety; Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology; U.S. Department of Energy

7.1 Establishing a Mission, Vision, and End Points

The Strategy Document⁽⁾ was developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's international nuclear safety work to define where we are going, when the work will be completed, and what we will have achieved when we are finished.

The mission is two-fold:

• Reduce the risks at Soviet-designed nuclear power plants, without discouraging the continued operation of the older plants (RBMKs and VVER-440/230s).

• Implement self-sustaining nuclear safety improvements. Our job is not to bring all the plants up to international safety standards, but to put the host countries on a path where they can continue to do that themselves.

The vision, within a decade, is that

• Soviet-designed plants are operated and regulated using internationally accepted practices.

• Safety is appropriately placed at the highest level of importance in design, operation, and regulation.

• The infrastructures, expertise, and resources exist in the host countries to enable active participation in international nuclear safety work.

7.2 Relationship to Other Key Documents

To put the Strategy Document in context, it helps to think of its relationship to other key documents. The Strategy Document is at the highest level, giving a broad view with an eye toward the future, especially completion of the work. One level beneath the Strategy Document is the Program Plan, which gives details about objectives, projects, schedules, and estimated funding required. Status reports, the most recent of which was issued early this year, describe progress and achievements over time. The Performance Measurement report, which the U.S. Department of Energy will issue annually, measures the effectiveness of the work. That report looks at how well we are achieving what we planned and how much impact the work is having.⁽⁾

Ideally, the results of the Performance Measurement report feed back into the Program Plan. The intent is to step back and take an objective view of the work, to determine whether mid-course corrections are needed. It is important to be willing to make changes based on the results of performance measurement.

7.3 Selecting Projects

Projects must meet three main criteria to achieve the mission and vision: impact on safety, cost-effectiveness, and host country commitment and sustainability.

Impact on safety is the most important criterion. To measure impact on safety, the U.S. Department of Energy relies heavily on independent reviews. Such reviews include those conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency to establish a prioritized list of key safety deficiencies at Soviet-designed reactors. More recently, the U.S. Department of Energy also has measured safety impact using safety analyses and risk assessments such as one done recently for Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant. Such assessments reveal which safety improvements have the greatest impact on safety. Another measurement of impacts is how many plants are affected by the improvement, how far-reaching it is. Technology transfer activities are necessary for achieving this broader effect.

Cost-effectiveness is a determination of the amount of benefit for cost incurred. This kind of evaluation must be done with a broad view of all the projects and how they leverage off one another. For example, a relatively high-cost project may nevertheless have a high cost-benefit ratio because it affects safety at many other plants.

Host country commitment comprises two factors: 1) the amount of money and resources the host country is willing to commit to a particular project, and 2) its interest in the project, specifically, whether the extent to which the host country feels the project meets an important need at the country's nuclear power plants.

Sustainability must be addressed in each project by specifying how knowledge, methods, and capabilities will be transferred to the host countries to build a lasting safety culture and infrastructure.

The technologies transferred usually are those that are in broad use in the international nuclear community, rather than specialized, proprietary technologies that companies are marketing for profit. sometimes a joint venture or other cooperative business arrangement is the best approach, where the host countries manufacture the product. In this way, the U.S. company does not incur costs of shipping a U.S.-manufactured product to the host countries.

7.4 Strategy for Implementing Projects

Most of the projects rely on a pilot plant approach, where the technology first is demonstrated at a particular plant and then extended to additional plants. Another key part of project implementation is involvement by the regulatory organizations in the host countries. For projects to be successful and sustainable, host country regulators must take a strong, ongoing oversight role.

7.5 Technical Areas and End Points

The work is grouped under six key technical areas, which are described below. Specific end points, or desired conditions at the completion of U.S. work, are identified for each area.

• Operational safety focuses on improving management methods and procedures. One end point is that the basic elements of operational safety are implemented at pilot plants by providing training, technology, methodology, and equipment. Another end point is that the utility organizations and regulators are provided the capability to develop guidelines and criteria to enable them to transfer the basic operational safety practices to the other plants in each host country.

• Training includes operator training on simulators as well as the use of the Systematic Approach to Training. One end point is the development of pilot training centers and training courses with the subsequent transfer of training methods to other plants. Another end point is that training simulators are available for use at all the plant sites and staff are knowledgeable in using them.

• Maintenance involves maintaining safety-related equipment to ensure its proper operation. One end point is that pilot plants have the training, technology, and equipment to implement an effective maintenance program. Another end point is that utility and regulatory organizations have developed guidelines and criteria to ensure the transfer of effective maintenance practices to the other plants.