Advances in Safety, Reliability and Human management II

Keynote speaker: Jae Joo Ha (KAERI, Korea)
Chair and co-chair: Marian Kristof (Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Slovakia) and Roman Tertychnyy (IPPE, Russia)
Speakers: Marko Cepin, Mikhail Solopenko, Vladimir Toshinsky, Denys Zenyuk, Dai Zhonghua

The highest priority in the entire nuclear business for several decades has been given to operational safety. This is the key element for keeping public acceptance in nuclear today and in the future. The goal is to reduce operational events and avoid any, however small, release of radioactive materials into the environment. Therefore, it is important to work towards improving operational safety by looking for state-of-the-art practices around the world. Working towards these improvements requires both a clear and understandable vision, and prioritization of what is important and what is not. One of the recent ways in evaluating the important factors that contribute to safety is referred to as Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). PSA activities, presented mainly by the keynote speaker but also mentioned by other speakers and later discussed among the attendees of the session, show that the cause of every event or problem regarding nuclear installation – we probably can extend it to any industrial sphere – is the human factor. This means that a top priority should be given to the education and training of the responsible personnel, and to make clear to everybody involved in the nuclear environment that safety is the greatest concern, having in mind mainly economical aspects. Another possibility is to look for reduction of human commitment in the technological processes leading to the introduction of the latest computer based automatization systems with high level of reliability. Next important issue talked over the session was the exchange of regulatory experience to instill awareness on new safety standards for old and modern reactor designs. The international collaborative efforts have to be focused at harmonizing regulatory standards and acceptance criteria.