Pages: 152-156

Authors: Marc Noël

Abstract

Nuclear power plant operational experience has been used for many years in order to improve the safety of nuclear facilities throughout the world. In the European Union, a regional Clearinghouse on Operational Experience Feedback for Nuclear Power Plants has been established to enhance nuclear safety through improvement of the use of lessons learned from operational experience. The EU Clearinghouse is organized as a network operated by a centralized office located at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and currently gathering nine European Safety Authorities and two major European Technical Support Organizations. Two years of operation of the EU Clearinghouse have shown the benefits of the common initiative and further areas of development have been identified. Among them, the need for further development of in depth analyses of dedicated families of operational events has been highlighted. The present paper describes the history of the initiative, the current work areas being developed and corresponding priorities for further improvement of the use of lessons learned from operational experience in the European Union.

Key words: nuclear safety, operational experience, European Commission, Joint Research Centre

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