IAEA Visited HFR For Follow-Up Continued Safe Operation Mission

At the beginning of July, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited the High Flux Reactor (HFR) – operated by NRG (ENS Corporate Member) – as part of a follow-up mission on ‘Continued Safe Operation’ – CSO.

CSO missions are aimed at evaluating the alignment of an operating reactor with relevant IAEA safety standards, with a specific focus on the applied ageing management programme. The systematic implementation of effective ageing management contributes towards safe and reliable reactor operation.

CSO missions are organised in the framework of the Operation and Maintenance Assessment for Research Reactors (OMARR) reviews, which are designed to assist Member States in improving the operational and maintenance practices of research reactor facilities.

The IAEA-team, consisted of one IAEA staff member and two international experts from Australia and Canada, evaluated how the HFR has implemented the findings from the earlier 2022 mission. They also evaluated the recently implemented safety improvements.

The HFR successfully closed or made sufficient progress on 8 out of the 9 findings of the CSO mission in 2022.

One recommendation could not be closed and requires further improvement by the HFR team. It relates to better definition and broad implementation of acceptance criteria for systems and components during maintenance activities.

In the coming months, the HFR team together with experts from NRG’s consultancy team will work towards resolving this finding.

“NRG PALLAS has addressed most of the review recommendations made in 2022 and achieved significant enhancement in continued safe operation. Further improvements remain needed to establish appropriate acceptance criteria in ageing management programmes.”said Kaichao Sun, mission team leader and Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA.

Read the NRG Press Release.