Session II – Safety of nuclear installations
Chair, Guido BRACKE (GRS, DE), Waste Management Safety, co-chair, Massimo GARRIBBA (DG ENER, EC), Director Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER, Giovanni BRUNA (FR), Expert rapporteur
The second session on safety of nuclear installations is mainly devoted to lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident, strategic initiatives supported within Europe and internationally as a response to the accident, as well as to reviews of technical and scientific improvements in the area of severe accident management and emergency preparedness and response. Nuclear safety is also addressed through the adoption of innovative Generation II-III fuel and materials, and the development of accident-tolerant fuels. Moreover, high performance research reactors have to overcome the challenging conversion from highly enriched to low enriched uranium fuels, to fulfil a worldwide non-proliferation effort. Safety assessments and severe accidents analysis, impact of external events on nuclear power plants, studies on mitigation of strategies, and probabilistic safety assessments are further supported. As a result, nuclear and radiological emergency management and preparedness within Europe and across the whole continent highly benefit from a unified, shared and coordinated approach. As such, joint experimental research activities improve and strengthen any optimal use of shared resources, methodologies, tools, and collaboration at pan-European and international level.