EU Clearinghouse Activities on Operating Experience Feedback

Operating Experience Feedback is one of the ways of improving nuclear safety of operating nuclear power plants. In 2008 a regional initiative, the European Clearinghouse, was set up to support nuclear safety regulatory authorities of EU Member States and their Technical Support Organizations, international organizations and the broader nuclear community in their effort to enhance nuclear safety through lessons learned from operating experience of nuclear power plants. The European Clearinghouse is organized as a Network and is operated by a Central Office located at the Institute for Energy and Transport in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The Clearinghouse maintains its own database of unusual events in NPPs considered being relevant for safety. This database brings together publicly available information from regulatory bodies and searches major data collections such as the joint IAEA/OECD-NEA Web Based Incident Reporting System and the USNRC Licensee Event Reports. In Topical Studies the Clearinghouse generalizes findings of generic event families by identifying root causes, providing recommendations and by highlighting lessons to be learned. Examples of these and other recent activities of the Clearinghouse are discussed. (authors)