The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

More than 70 delegates from 17 countries gathered in Manchester last month to pool their knowledge and experience of taking nuclear energy forward.

Hosted by the NDA at Manchester United's conference facilities, the multinational representatives were attending a meeting of the Infrastructure Development Working Group (IDGW) of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

UK participants came from DECC and NDA (Phil Davies, John Mathieson, Graham Jonsson, Carl Dawson, Jenni Lee, Julie Brannon and Tracey Scott). DECC had also invited NNL, URENCO, UKAEA, Imperial College, the Dalton Institute, EPSRC and the Royal Society with the aim of addressing the Prime Minister's recent challenge to develop a partnership between industry, research and government in nuclear matters.

GNEP was established by the Bush Administration in 2007 to bring together countries that share a vision of expanding nuclear energy in a safe and secure manner. The UK signed up in 2008, as the 21st member, following the completion of the government's nuclear consultation.

Membership ranges from the large nuclear powers of China, Russia and the US to smaller countries aspiring to nuclear power, such as Senegal, Jordan and Ghana.

In addition to the routine IDWG business, the meeting covered three main areas: radioactive waste management, human resource development, and resources and gaps associated with utilising small and medium-sized reactors (SMR) (i.e. reactors of less than 700MW(e) capacity).

One of GNEP's activities is to review a country's state of readiness to introduce nuclear power. The IAEA has 19 milestones which need to be addressed before a plant is built. These include an adequate legislative, regulatory, safety, environmental and safeguards regime, appropriate financing schemes for building, decommissioning and waste management, HR development plans, stakeholder involvement, an appropriate electricity grid, and fuel cycle strategy. Jordan has recently been assessed and an assessment for Ghana will commence in July 2009.

The next meeting of the IDWG will be held in Vienna and there will be a session on financing reactor build, decommissioning and waste management. For further information, copies of presentations and other notes, please contact John Mathieson.

For more details of the discussions, see:

 Report from Infrastructure Development Working Group (IDWG) May 2009 (filesize)