Summary [International Conference on Operational Safety, Vienna (Austria), 23-26 June 2015]

The civil nuclear power industry changed forever on 11 March 2011. As the people of Japan came to terms with the devastating effects of a large undersea earthquake and a destructive tsunami, the world watched the evolution of a nuclear accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The effects of that accident are still evident, over four years later, well beyond the areas immediately affected. Public and investor confidence has been eroded. Several existing and proposed nuclear power programmes were stopped or curtailed. However the industry has set out on a rigorous path to ensure the lessons from the event are learned and defences strengthened to make operational safety more robust. The IAEA and its member states unanimously agreed to a Nuclear Safety Action Plan with a comprehensive set of improvements across a wide range of activities. Regulators, utilities and designers of nuclear plants came together to demand, find and implement improvements to nuclear plants and their safe management. And now, in 2015 more than 70 new nuclear units are under construction and several countries have announced their intention to embark on new or expanded nuclear power programmes. This diverse situation poses a number of operational safety challenges to governments, regulators and operators involved in the nuclear industry. It was in this context that the IAEA's 2015 international conference on operational safety was conceived. The purpose of the conference was to review the progress of operational safety improvements being introduced in the light of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and to foster the exchange of information on operational safety performance and operating experience at nuclear power plants.