Technical Meeting on Decision Making for Sustaining Operational Excellence in Nuclear Power Plant Operating Organizations

Background

Nuclear electricity generation has faced critical economic challenges under competitive electricity markets and difficulties in continuously taking a role as a stable energy source. As a result, nuclear power plant (NPP) owner/operator organizations now need to re-evaluate and re-establish their business model to become more robust and resilient so that nuclear power plants sustain operational excellence and fulfil its expected role in decarbonization and energy security.

Under these circumstances, IAEA-Nuclear Energy Department (NE) has been continuously making efforts for supporting sustainable excellent performance of NPPs by developing several documents including the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series publication "Sustaining Operational excellence at Nuclear Power Plants – Principles and Challenges" (NR-G-3.1, December 2022) and the IAEA TECDOC Series on “Institutional Strength in Depth in the Nuclear Industry to Sustain Operational Excellence” (TECDOC-2038, December 2023).

During the development of these publications, it was repeatedly discussed that timely and effective decision-making is one of the critical factors needed to sustain operational excellence, be it about design, process, emergency action, or other areas. It was also understood that strategic and tactical decision-makings were not necessarily guided by existing publications well, while some existing ones in the nuclear industry provide good guidance for operational decision-makings on the daily or short-term basis. More specifically, the needs of practical guidance for senior management of owner/operating organizations of NPPs were highlighted for:

• Making decision under large uncertainties that might be difficult to be based on sufficient data and analysis because of rapid changes of situations, characteristics of hazards etc.;
• Evaluating cost-effectiveness and value of investment to enhance safety and improve performance;
• Achieving objective judgement by gaining critical and diverse views and avoiding any influence of organizational, leadership and cultural elements and external factors including economic, societal, political and environmental aspects;
• Collecting necessary data and information for decision-making systematically.

Therefore, developing a technical document that discusses processes, mechanisms, tools and technics for the best decision-making within NPP owner/operating organizations and sharing practical examples among Member States, is deemed valuable.

Objectives

The purpose of the event is to provide a forum for Member States with operating (or soon-to-be operating) nuclear power plants to share good practices, experience and lessons learned in strategic and tactical decision making, including relevant processes, mechanisms, tools and techniques. Considerations related to organizational, leadership and cultural elements and external factors such as economic, societal, political and environmental aspects that might influence decision making will also be discussed.

The event will provide an opportunity for Members States to review and provide feedback on the draft IAEA Technical Document entitled Decision-Making for Sustaining Operational Excellence in Nuclear Power Plant Operating Organizations.

Target Audience

The event is targeted mainly at senior leaders and managers of NPP owner/operating organizations, who are directly responsible for strategic and tactical decision-makings related to plant safety and performance. However, this event is also being developed for the benefit of a group of nuclear power plant stakeholders across the nuclear power industrial sector, including nuclear industrial associations such as WANO, INPO, NEI, OECD/NEA, Nucleareurope, European Commission and EPRI; manufacturers, vendors and contractors; regulators, governments, technical support organizations, and academia.

Nomination new deadline:?16 September 2024

NOTE: The application for financial support should be made, together with the submission of the application,?by 16 September 2024.

Register here?→