Nuclear Safety Review for the Year 2010

The Agency, as a leading organization for promoting international cooperation among its Member States, is in a unique position to observe global trends, issues and challenges in nuclear safety and security through a wide variety of activities related to the establishment of safety standards and security guidelines and their application. The contents of this Nuclear Safety Review reflect the emerging nuclear safety trends, issues and challenges for 2010, as well as recapitulate the Agency's activities intended to further strengthen the global nuclear safety and security framework in all areas of nuclear, radiation, waste and transport safety. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, caused by the extraordinary disasters of the earthquake and tsunamis that struck Japan on 11 March 2011, continues to be assessed. As this report focuses on developments in 2010, the accident and its implications are not addressed here, but will be addressed in future reports of the Agency. The international nuclear community maintained a high level of safety performance in 2010. Nuclear power plant safety performance remained high, and indicated an improved trend in the number of emergency shutdowns as well in the level of energy available during these shutdowns. In addition, more States explored or expanded their interests in nuclear power programmes, and more faced the challenge of establishing the required regulatory infrastructure, regulatory supervision and safety management over nuclear installations and the use of ionizing radiation. Issues surrounding radiation protection and radioecology continued as trends in 2010. For example, increased public awareness of exposure to and environmental impacts of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) as well as nuclear legacy sites has led to increased public concern. In addition, human resources in radiation protection and radioecology have been lost as a result of retirement and of the migration of experts to other fields. It is clear that safety continues to be a work in progress. The global nuclear power industry continued to require substantial efforts by designers, manufacturers, operators, regulators and other stakeholders to satisfy diverse quality and safety requirements and licensing processes, along with the recognized need in industry and among regulators to standardize and harmonize these requirements and processes. In some cases, plans for nuclear power programme development moved faster than the establishment of the necessary regulatory and safety infrastructure and capacity. To assist Member States in this effort, the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF) was formed in June 2010. The RCF is a regulator-to-regulator forum that optimizes regulatory support from Member States with advanced nuclear power programmes to newcomer Member States or, on request, to those States that are expanding their nuclear power programmes. The Agency is actively involved in the development of safety goals for a robust and technically consistent framework for nuclear power plants and other nuclear and radiation installations and activities. This requires a holistic consideration of quantitative and qualitative criteria to ensure that no individual bears unacceptable radiation risks, as stated in the Agency's Fundamental Safety Principles (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SF-1). Fuel cycle facilities, covering a diverse range of installations and processes - from mining to enrichment to fabrication to reprocessing to storage or disposal- present varying degrees of hazards and specific challenges to nuclear safety (e.g., criticality control, chemical hazards, fires and explosions). Many rely on operator intervention and administrative controls to ensure nuclear safety. Events reported in 2010 to the Agency's Fuel Incident Notification and Analysis System (FINAS) indicated that the main root causes of these events were related to organizational and human factors. Of the 441 reactors currently operating around the world, many were built in the 1970s and 1980s, with an average lifespan of around 35 years. Their decommissioning peak will occur from 2020 to 2030 which will present a major managerial, technological, safety and environmental challenge to those States engaged in nuclear decommissioning. The need for national and international mechanisms for early planning, adequate funding and long term strategies applies not only to decommissioning, but also to radioactive waste management and spent fuel management, including disposal arrangements and clean-up, as well as the preservation of operational knowledge and experience to ensure the safety of these activities. Many of these issues were discussed in depth at the International Conference on Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors held at the Agency in May, 2010. The collective dose to workers and patients has the potential to significantly increase as a result of the worldwide expansion in the use of radiation in medical diagnosis and treatment as reported this year. Medical workers performed more than 10 million procedures per day and comprised the largest proportion of workers exposed to ionizing radiation. In addition, there were increased reports of patients undergoing multiple diagnostic computerized tomography (CT) scans within a few years or even in a single year, where the cumulative effective doses for individual patients exceeded 100 mSv, and in some cases 1 Sv. Recent recommendations by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) have been incorporated in the draft of the revised International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (BSS). A key issue in this context is the development of a consistent and harmonized system, applying ICRP recommended principles for radiation protection as well as exposure of non-human species in planned, existing and emergency exposure situations.