The research strategy of the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate

In its directive to the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate for 2001 and 2002, the Government asked for a report on SKI's future research strategy. This report is meant to describe future needs for SKI's regulatory and supervisory work, the need for expertise in Sweden and the possibility of international co-operation. SKI's research currently focuses on a number of strategically important areas such as reactor technology, materials and fuel issues, human factors, nuclear waste and nuclear safeguards. Over the past decade, the nuclear infrastructure has changed considerably. The nuclear power companies' previous organisations with specialist expertise and resources have been successively closed down or converted into consulting companies. Furthermore, education and research in the nuclear area at universities have been considerably reduced and expertise, resources and interest in the area have thereby decreased. A review of the availability of expertise in Sweden shows that, in many areas, resources are adequate, but that SKI, in certain cases, needs to provide focused support in order to maintain the expertise that SKI needs for its regulatory and supervisory activities. The analysis highlights two areas without any real education and research: 'Materials testing and control' and 'Management, control and organisation'. Education and research in the latter area lacks a safety perspective. SKI intends to take the initiative to conduct work within both of these areas. Since national research resources are limited, SKI has, for a long time, actively participated in international research. SKI is prioritising co-operation on research conducted in the OECD/NEA and is participating in a large number of projects organised within this framework. Since Sweden joined the EU, the importance of joint European work has increased. SKI is itself also actively participating and supporting Swedish organisations participating in European Commission projects and intends to support such projects in future. Furthermore, in the safeguards area, important joint work is underway in ESARDA. Experience has shown that a prerequisite for taking advantage of international research and expertise is that activities on the national level should be of an adequate scope within each area. In SKI's opinion, the increased co-operation offers the possibility of gaining access to important research information at a relatively modest cost. In recent years, concerns have been expressed regarding the possibility of maintaining adequate strategic expertise in the nuclear field. To explore this issue, SKI has investigated the needs in the strategic expertise areas today and within a ten-year perspective. The investigation shows that the annual university recruitment need is a total of about 50 people within the strategic nuclear areas. In SKI's opinion, the education capacity in these areas is adequate at present and is assured for the foreseeable future as a result of the measures taken by SKI and the nuclear industry through the Swedish Nuclear Centre (SKC). There is also concern regarding expertise and resources for conducting qualified experiments. Over the past ten years, several of the world's research reactors and experimental facilities in thermohydraulics have been decommissioned. The OECD/NEA has therefore taken the initiative to support 'Centres of Excellence' (CoE), which are defined as international research groups associated with important experimental facilities. In parallel, within the Sixth Framework Programme, which is starting in 2003, the EU has used the term 'Networks of Excellence' (NoE), where the aim is to achieve co-operation between researchers within a specific research discipline. SKI has investigated the possibility of proposing a CoE in Sweden or of participating in NoE, in order to support important research conducted in Sweden. SKI sees a possibility that Studsvik's R2 reactor and the fuel experiments that can be conducted and analysed at this reactor could comprise a CoE. SKB's Hard Rock Laboratory at Aespoe could also comprise a CoE. With respect to NoE, SKI currently envisages two possibilities: the Department of Nuclear Safety at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH) within the area of thermohydraulics and severe accidents as well as within human factors (man-machine-technology). SKI intends to support the efforts to set up a CoE or to participate in an NoE. SKI's conclusions can be summarised as follows: In SKI's opinion, with the current support to universities, the level of education and research within nuclear-related subjects will be satisfactory in the foreseeable future. SKI intends to take the initiative to ensure that work starts within the areas of 'Materials testing and control' and 'Management, control and organisation' to rectify deficiencies within these areas with respect to resources for education and research