Chair(s): |
Sean PETERS, United States |
Secretary: |
Anaïs NOUAILLES MAYEUR (anais.nouailles-mayeur@oecd-nea.org) |
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Vice-Chair(s): |
Pia OEDEWALD, Finland Giustino MANNA, Netherlands Salvatore MASSAIU, Norway | ||
Member(s): | All NEA member countries* | ||
Russia (Suspended*) | |||
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council. | |||
EU participation: |
The European Union (EU) takes part in the work of the NEA, in accordance with the NEA Statute and the Supplementary Protocol to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. | ||
Participant(s): |
India | ||
Observer(s)(International Organisation): |
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) By agreement | ||
Date of creation: | 30 June 1999 | ||
End of mandate: | 31 December 2026 |
Mandate (Document reference):
Mandate (Document extract):
Extract from document NEA/SEN/SIN/WGHOF(2023)2/FINAL
Background
The Strategic Plan of the Nuclear Energy Agency 2023-2028, identifies “Human Aspects of Nuclear Safety” as a Strategic Programme Area. The goal is to assist member countries in their efforts to ensure high standards of safety in the use of nuclear energy by advancing greater understanding of human and organisational aspects. It includes promoting enhanced safety culture, effective work design and training policies and practices, effective public communication and stakeholder engagement, and a full consideration of the importance of leadership, diversity of knowledge and experience, and gender balance in nuclear organisations.
The Strategic Plan states that “These human aspects have gained greater understanding as the key to informed and sustainable decision-making, central to safe operations, and vital to the long-term viability of the nuclear sector and the social license it must enjoy to operate around the world.”
Furthermore, the complexity of the matters is highlighted: “The NEA has been at the forefront of many of these areas and supports its member countries in addressing these highly complex matters in a comprehensive manner.”
With the aim to contribute to the NEA Strategic Plan, the mission of the Working Group on Human and Organisational Factors (WGHOF) is to improve the understanding and technical basis for addressing human and organisational factors within the nuclear sector in order to support the continued safety performance of nuclear installations and improve the effectiveness of regulatory practices in NEA member countries.
The scope of the WGHOF encapsulates the multi-disciplinary field of Human and Organisational Factors (HOF). Nuclear facilities are not solely technical but rather are part of sociotechnical systems in which the human, technological, and organisational factors dynamically interplay, creating various interactions that have an effect on the system’s overall capacity to perform safely, reliably, and sustainably.
Accordingly, it is the common understanding that, in addition to the technology, the following areas, amongst others, influence system performance and safety:
Scope
Consistent with the Committee on the Safety on Nuclear Installations (CSNI) extended mandate for 2023-2028 [NEA/SEN/SIN(2022)5], the WGHOF will address safety aspects of existing power reactors and the emerging safety challenges required to enable safety in design and operation of advanced and innovative nuclear technologies, including the ones used for small modular reactors (SMRs). The WGHOF will further strive to ensure that the issues associated with human and organisational factors are properly and conscientiously considered as the workforce, technology, and our organisations evolve in the development of these new technologies, such as SMRs.
Objectives
The WGHOF will address the challenges identified in the NEA Strategic Plan 2023-2028 [NEA/NE(2021)9/FINAL] and implement the CSNI Operating Plan and Guidelines. In particular, the WGHOF will:
Working methods
The WGHOF will:
Membership
The WGHOF is comprised of experts from nuclear regulatory bodies, license holders, technical support organisations, research institutions and relevant international organisations.
Delegates from non-member partner countries (participants or invitees) may also attend WGHOF meetings (according to the Global Relations Strategic Directions of the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy).
Interactions
The WGHOF will collaborate with other relevant NEA bodies, particularly the Committee for Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) Working Group on Leadership and Safety Culture (WGLSC), other NEA standing technical committees, and international organisations.
The WGHOF will collaborate with and support cross-cutting initiatives proposed to or by other CSNI and CNRA working groups, including the Working Group on Fuel Cycle Safety (WGFCS). The WGHOF will ensure that the CSNI, CNRA, other NEA bodies, in particular the High Level Group on Stakeholder Engagement, Trust, Transparency and Social Sciences (HLG-SET), the Expert Group on SMRs (EGSMR), international organisations, and stakeholders are consulted, as appropriate, when potential cross-cutting work on human and organisational factors is proposed by the WGHOF.
The NEA provides a framework for establishing joint safety research projects. The WGHOF will promote technical exchanges by creating opportunities with relevant projects, and provide them technical support as appropriate. In particular, the WGHOF will engage with the Halden Human Technology Organisation (HTO) Project to streamline and support mutual areas of work.
The NEA has established Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with a number of organisations, such as the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the CANDU Owners Group (COG), the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and other international organisations, to promote international collaboration, particularly in the area of nuclear safety. Accordingly, representatives from these organisations can be invited to participate in NEA’s activities, consistent with the MOUs, in an effort to coordinate their work and to avoid unnecessary duplication.
Deliverables
The deliverables of the CSNI and its working groups include technical reports, proceedings of seminars or workshops, final and interim summary reports from joint projects, state-of-the-art reports, technical or collective opinion papers, brochures and flyers, as well as webinars, technical workshops, and training courses.