Evaluation of nuclear safety at European level: the ETSON network publishes new guides to promote best practices of expertise

Created in 2006, the European Technical Safety Organisations Network ETSON [1] aims to contribute to the harmonization of nuclear safety in Europe and beyond. Today, the network publishes four technical guides to promote and disseminate best practices for the assessment of nuclear safety.

Since the launch of the EUROSAFE initiative in 1999, the French institute IRSN, the German GRS and the Belgian Bel V (formerly AVN) pursued the objective of advancing the harmonization of nuclear safety in Europe by comparing their methods to assess safety. In 2004, they published a "Guide for Safety Evaluation" with practical methods for performing common safety assessments.

Pursuing this approach, the European Technical Safety Organisations Network ETSON releases today four technical guides to promote and disseminate best practices for the assessment of nuclear safety at European and global level. The preparation of these guides relied on twelve thematic working groups in which experts have analyzed the different methods of evaluation of nuclear safety implemented in European countries.

A general document (Safety Assessment Guide) defines the scope of the methodology used in Europe during safety assessments, presents different requirements for the assessment of nuclear safety and also the technical elements required to complete an evaluation. It is supplemented by the first three thematic technical guides: Deterministic severe accidents analysis, Event review and precursor analysis, Human and organizational factors in nuclear facilities design and modification processes.

Each ETSON members will appropriate the harmonised methods described in the TSAGs, decline them in their countries for their own safety studies assessment and, then, share the experience feedback.

Download the ETSON guides (PDF files) on the ETSON website www.etson.eu​

• Safety Assessment Guide
• Technical Safety Assessment Guide : Event review and precursor analysis
• Technical Safety Asessment Guide : Human and organisational factors in nuclear facilities design and modification processes
• Technical Safety Assessment Guide : Deterministic severe accidents analysis

Note:

1- The ETSON network currently comprises eight members (IRSN - France, GRS - Germany, Bel V – Belgium, UJV - Czech Republic, VTT – Finland, LEI – Lithuania, VUJE – Slovakia, PSI - Switzerland) and 3 associate members (JNES – Japan, SSTC - Ukraine, SEC NRS – Russia)