Nuclear Power Newsletter, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 2011

The Technical Working Group on Nuclear Power Infrastructure (TWG-NPI) is a group of international experts from 19 Member States and includes both nuclear power newcomer and experienced countries. The TWG is designed to provide valuable advice to the IAEA which relates to the development and implementation of national nuclear power programmes. The second meeting of the TWG-NPI was held at the IAEA on 23-26 May 2011. Twenty-four experts discussed topics such as IAEA technical assistance to new- comers; the role of research in nuclear power infrastructure development; 'soft' coordination between bilateral assistance and IAEA assistance; and future IAEA activities for newcomers. The possible impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi accident on the Milestone approach (documented in IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NGG-3.1) were also on the meeting's agenda. As everybody knows, a monster earthquake and an unpredictable tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March 2011 crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1 to 4 and destroyed offsite power lines and emergency diesel generators. The IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) immediately started its action to respond to the Fukushima accident from day 1 and the IAEA Director General, Mr Y. Amano, established the Fukushima Accident Coordination Team (FACT) to coordinate the response to the accident in-house, with the Japanese Government and Nuclear Industry Safety Authority (NISA), Member States and international organizations such as CTBTO, WMO and FAO. Many staff members of the Division of Nuclear Power volunteered to support coordination activities of the IAEA, working day and night shifts at the IEC, the Reactor Engineering Support Team and the Fukushima Nuclear Safety Team. Special thanks go to Mr Masahiro Aoki of the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Group (INIG) who volunteered to join NISA in Tokyo to coordinate the IAEA activities with Japanese authorities for a month working 12-17 hours a day. Mr Katsumi Yamada of the Nuclear Power Technology Development Section (NPTDS) coordinated the IAEA response with experts of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) as well as Japanese authorities by visiting Japan including the Fukushima site. NENP will do its best in coordination with others in the IAEA to support Japan to bring the crisis into a stable condition as announced by the TEPCO in the Roadmap towards Restoration from the Accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on 17 April within 6 to 9 months. Among many other activities of the NENP, meetings of Technical Working Groups on nuclear desalination, fast reactors, NPP instrument and control and nuclear infrastructure were held in April and May. The 17th INPRO Steering Committee meeting was held in May and discussed a vision for INPRO to 2016 and the action plan for the next biennium.