ATENA Forum 2023

Panel Discussion

ATENA’s efforts of enhancing nuclear safety- What have been accomplished andwhat should be pursued from now February 16, 2023
Atomic Energy Association
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

1Introduction• Four years have passed since ATENA was established,
and we recognize that it is time to reflect on our past activities.
• As ATENA is still a young organization, there is a great deal ofroom for reforming the organization and is in the process ofquesting the right direction of the organization's activities andmaking necessary changes.
• We would like to review our achievements so far andchallenges in light of the expected role of the organization
when it was established, and to make our future activities
more effective.
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

2

ATENA’s Activity Policy①Efforts for solving the common technical issues• ATENA shall address the common technical issues such as utilization of latest
knowledge and technology and review them with its expertise in order to achieve
the effective safety improvement in NPPs. The result of the review shall beassembled and published as technical reports if necessary.
• ATENA shall formulate effective safety measures independently of varied interests
among utilities and request all utilities to incorporate them into their actual
activities through the votes at ATENA’s Steering Committee meeting even in casethere are some utilities who do not agree on the measures.
• ATENA shall also confirm and publish the status of utilities’ implementation.
②Proactive dialogue with NRA• ATENA shall be a single responsible body to handle regulatory issues common toutilities.
• ATENA shall engage in dialogue with NRA as a representative of the industry.
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

3①Efforts for solving the common technical issues

Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

Scheme of ATENA’s activities•

Identify latest information domestic and abroad in nuclear power and designate especially important common
technical issues as “themes”. Further improve safety at nuclear power plants by creating guidelines for safety
improvement measures and deploying the safety measures at utilities.

•Establish a common understanding in discussing ATENA themes and safety improvement measures through dialogue
with the regulatory authority and disclose activity status to the public

ATENA

・Decide on important common issues in the Steering
Information domestic and abroad[various organization]

Discussion/resolution [Steering Committee]

Committee composed by top management of
nuclear division of utilities and plant

manufacturers

・Create WG of industry experts
・Publish results of the discussions as guidelines

Discussion/resolution[Steering Committee]

Publish guidelines/create safety measures
implementation plan [Utilities]

Confirm/assess implementation status

Implement/assess

Implement safety measures [Utilities]

Determination of
the action plan

Dialogue
Establish a common understanding

Regulatory authority

Priority issues to be addressed by the industry

Identifying issues tobe adressedState of the plant[Utilities]

4・Implement safety improvement measures with thecommitment of each utility

・Confirm and assess the implementation status ofsafety measures by utilities and ensure measures arebeing implemented as planned
Disclose to the public on ATENA website
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

5Selection of Themes

Screening

Extraction ofcandidatethemes

Review the latest knowledge domestic and overseas and extract candidate themes thatshould be prioritized as common issues contributing to further improvement in safety.
Collect opinions on candidate themes from utilities and manufacturers◆Issues in operation of the power plant
Taking into account domestic and overseas trends, extract candidate themes by ATENA’s own
perspectives◆Information from NEI regarding regulatory issues and technical reports◆NRA’s information handled at the Technical Information Study Meeting, NRA’s research
projects
Priority scoring from the following perspectives

Candidatethemes with highpriority

Themeidentification

Commonality (Issues common to the industry)Magnitude of effects(contribution to safety improvement, risk reduction, cost effectiveness, etc.)
Foresight (whether the industry is taking a step ahead)Effects of improving social awarenessFeasibility of initiatives

Identify themes to be addressed by ATENA at the Steering Committee after confirming
the scoring results of candidate themes.
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

6

ATENA's governance system• When it is necessary to initiate technical discussions of common regulatory issues,
ATENA formulates working groups (WGs) and ATENA’s specialist staff plays acentral role of conducting technical discussions.
• ATENA engages in technical discussions with the regulators as the representativeof the industry.
Prior to the establishment of ATENA
Currently
Federation of Electric Power Companies
CNO Committee

FEPC

Utilities are responsible fortechnical discussions.

CNO
Committee

CEO andDirectors

Regulations
Authorities

Utilities(core members)

Participation

Participation
Manufacturers

WG

WG

BasicTransfer

WG・・Committee

Committee

Committee

To attend
meetings withthe regulators

Regulations
Authorities

Specialists andadministrative staff

Concurrentduties(operation)

Staff

Discussion oftechnical issues

Staff

Staff

(Contact Points)

Utilities

ATENA

Participation

Utilities and manufacturers
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

List of main common technical issues (themes)
Technical issue① Proactively utilize newknowledge and advanced
technologies

7ThemeDevelop a new guideline for Cyber security
Develop a new guideline to adopt measures for common cause failures in digital safety protection system
Pursue efficient and effective operation with appropriate consideration of importance classification of SA
equipment (Improvement of Limiting Conditions for Operation (LCO))
Establishment of improvement measure for “Open Phase Condition”
Establishment of proper management of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) related to the instrumentationand control system
Response to the findings from the investigation and analysis of the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station Accident
Deployment of new fuel② Prepare thoroughly forvarious external events

Review of the methodology to assess “design basis ground motion formulated without specifying seismicsources”
Establish evaluation method to ensure conformance of base isolated buildings housing SA equipment totechnical standards③ Establish a framework which Develop industry’s guide documents for specific procedure to fulfill the NRA’s inspection reformpromotes voluntary efforts
Initiative of aging management for safe long-term operation
for safety improvement④ Others

Establishment of further improvement measures for Emergency Diesel Generators(EDG) reliability byanalyzing operating experience

Further Investigation Related to the Intergranular Cracking on Stainless Steel Piping of PWR Primary
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.
System8

Published technical reports
FY2019〇Improvement Measures Proposed by Assessing Trends in Emergency Diesel Generator Malfunctions in
Domestic Nuclear Power Plants

Publication date(June 21, 2019)[Rev. 1, November 7, 2019]○Guideline Regarding Performance Indicators (PI) Used in Nuclear Regulatory Inspections(June 28, 2019)○Voluntary Guide on Introducing Cybersecurity Measures at Nuclear Power Plants(March 12, 2020)

FY2020Publication date

○Guideline on the implementation of Licensee Inspections(July 31, 2020)○Maintenance Guideline for Long-term Plant Shutdown(September 25, 2020)○Guideline on Assessing Design Obsolescence(September 25, 2020)○Discontinued Product Management Guideline(September 25, 2020)○Design Guideline for the Base-Isolated Buildings Housing Severe Accident Equipment(September 29, 2020)〇Guideline for Deterrence and Adequate Response to Fraudulent Activity by Manufacturer/Component Supplier○Technical Requirements for Mitigation Measures of Software Common Cause Failures of Digital Safety
Protection System
FY2021(October 28, 2020)(December 24, 2020)[Rev. 1, October 5, 2022]
Publication date〇Report of knowledge build-up related to aging for safe long-term operation（March 25, 2022）

FY2022Publication date

〇Operational safety program revision guideline for improving safety through a diverse range of facilities（July 29, 2022）

To be published〇Report on the advancement of liquefaction evaluation methods（working title)○Position paper on electromagnetic compatibility (working title)

Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

Current Status of Addressing Common Technical Issues【 Accomplishments so far 】⚫

⚫

The practices of ATENA’s operations have become established, such as toidentify common technical issues, conduct technical reviews, compile andpublish guidelines, request utilities to implement safety measures, andfollow up the implementation status under ATENA’s governance.
To date, ATENA have identified more than 20 technical issues, and haverequested utilities to implement safety measures in ten cases during past
four years.

【 Questions to be discussed 】⚫

Are the technical issues that need to be addressed sufficiently identified?

⚫

Are there any area for further improvements in the extraction process,scope to be covered, and screening criteria of technical issues?
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

9

Direction of activities for addressing common technical issues【 Direction of Activities 】●To identify technical issues
Candidate themes have been mainly collected from utilities andmanufacturers. (Initially extracted from about 200 candidates; recently a few
additional candidates have been collected. Instead, many of new themes havebeen identified which came from proposals of the regulators.)⇒ Reinforce the process of extraction by ATENA experts from domestic andoverseas trends.
⇒ Need to be more sensitive to overseas information through more enhancedand close communication with organizations abroad.
●Screening criteria for identifying technical issues
Although priority has been placed on improving safety when we extract
themes, we need to additionally address issues for efficient use of nuclear
power while maintaining safety with utilizing risk information.
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

1011②Proactive dialogue with NRA

Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

Dialogue between ATENA and the regulators➢ Opinion Exchange Meeting between NRA and CNOs of major utilities
・Discussions on the general issues of nuclear regulation between the NRA Commissioners,
CNOs and ATENA executives. (about two or three times a year)➢ NRA’s open meetings and technical opinion exchanges meetings・Exchange of opinions on specific technical issues at the practical level between experts of NRA
and the industry
e.g., aging management, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), new inspection system,
software common cause failure of digital safety protection system,working team meeting of reinforcement of regulations by investigating
Fukushima Daiichi accident➢ Regular administrative meetings
・Daily communication on common technical issues (themes) between the Director of the Nuclear
Regulation Planning Division and the ATENA Secretary General(approximately once a week)
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

12

Current status of dialogue with the regulators【 Accomplishments so far 】⚫

ATENA’s position to talk with the regulators as a representative of theindustry is being established.

⚫

In some cases, successful sharing of discussion points and the needs ofboth parties has led to a fruitful exchange of opinions.
(Such as discussions on new inspection system, aging management)⚫

In some cases, discussions with the regulators resulted in the new attemptof allowing industry’s voluntary efforts to cope with new knowledge
instead of introducing back fit by the regulators. (Software common cause
failure of digital safety protection system, etc.)

Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.

13

Challenges in dialogue with the regulators

14【 Questions to be discussed 】⚫

There are still occasional cases of passive responses to proposals of theregulators.
⇒ The need for a shift to an active and proactive response at the WG level, so that
proposals of the industry can be made through discussions of what should bedone and who should be responsible to address safety issues.
The need to improve awareness and governance for this perspective.

⚫

Technical review and compilation of guidelines require a reasonable amount of time.
In order to carry out fruitful dialogue with the regulators on the result of technicalreview, it is necessary to share common understandings on issues from the initialstage of issue identification.
⇒ It is necessary to initiate opinion exchange from the initial stage such as issueidentification stage and beginning stage of technical review. How we realize suchprocess of communication with the regulators?
Copyright © Atomic Energy Association All Rights Reserved.