Research as a vital component of nuclear safety and radioprotection policies
4. THE KEY ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PROMOTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Maintaining the highest safety and health protection levels of populations worldwide with respect to the use of nuclear energy throughout the production cycle is obviously a key to the future of this source of energy. Naturally, the prime responsibility for safety rests with the operators, in accordance with national regulations. However, international organizations also have a very important role to play, in order to promote best practices and to facilitate the harmonization of standards where needed, particularly where visible discrep-ancies between neighbouring countries may affect the level of public confidence in the coherence of nuclear safety policies.
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This can be approached from several angles: the most institutional consists in implementing cooperation between States which have membership in the organization concerned, in accordance with its statutory rules and objectives.
Beyond this, government level actions must be complemented and enhanced by the wide ranging promotion of appropriate values, models and methods, through the facilitation of ever closer international scientific and technical cooperation, through the dissemination of knowledge and the encouragement to networking in a context of scarce resources, leading to progressive harmonization of good practice in risk assessment. For example, the research policy implemented by the European Commission under the Euratom Treaty, within the wider scope of the European Union’s research policy, is proving effective in creating networks between research bodies, leading to the establishment of common tools and approaches.
The ambition declared by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000 to promote the creation of a European research area and the innovating orien-tations proposed by the European Commission and adopted for the 6th Framework Research Programme are now proving essential. Gathering infra-structures, human resources and analysis tools within European networks of excellence that deal with major nuclear safety concerns certainly is a powerful means to preserve research capabilities and to ensure a skill level that is essential for maintaining a high safety level in Europe.
In this respect, the creation of the SARNET network of excellence dedicated to severe accidents is clearly demonstrating the willingness of about 50 European organizations to link up their actions to the integration policy decided by the European Union with a long term objective. The SARNET network will play, in this area, a major role in the identification of the most pertinent research subjects and in the coordination of work conducted in Europe, whether it concerns experimental or theoretical projects. It will contribute to maintaining the appropriate research skills and capabilities in Europe and to promoting the development and application of the ASTEC code for the modelling of severe accident sequences. As a result, apart from providing an environment conducive to knowledge sharing, the SARNET network will, with time, become a prime actor in international scientific cooperation with regard to severe accidents.
Indeed, such scientific cooperation may effectively reach the level of operational safety expertise, as shown by the joint efforts developed by IRSN and the German GRS to create the basis for a European network of expertise and risk assessment capacity, already at work in support of nuclear safety authorities in eastern Europe for many years through their specialized daughter company, Riskaudit. This cooperation has led to extensive
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85 comparative safety studies on subjects of common interest on key issues, such as thermal fatigue, and database reference information between GRS and IRSN. It is currently being extended to AVN from Belgium, aiming to make a comparative analysis of their own safety assessment methods and the main aspects considered when analysing the safety problems encountered, to enhance experience sharing, carry out common or additional work and compare their findings. This type of approach, also promoted through the annual EUROSAFE Conference held each year in Europe on the joint initiative of GRS and IRSN, is fully consistent with the IAEA approach.
Similarly, initiatives taken in the OECD/NEA context during the last three decades have encouraged the sharing of research programmes, and the exchange of scientific information between participating organizations. It is, for example, essential that a forum exists, as it does in the OECD/NEA, to address the issue of large international test programmes that require the use of research reactors which cannot continue to operate, for budgetary reasons, on the basis of a single country contribution.
In a different area, the IAEA initiative in the field of nuclear security will also be beneficial to bring together worldwide expertise in order to upgrade protection against the risk of terrorism.
And, beyond the intergovernmental and scientific fields, it is also essential that international organizations mobilize their capacity of action to encourage initiatives aimed at the renewal of public confidence in the field of nuclear risks. New approaches to the governance of these risks, involving stake-holders in a more systematic manner, and encouraging access to appropriate information can contribute powerfully. Again, at the European level, several projects are in progress in several fields including nuclear, which demonstrate the validity of new approaches with respect to risk governance. This type of approach can be particularly useful, if initiated early, where concerns of the population are expressed on health issues resulting from suspected chronic exposures.
5. CONCLUSION
Risk oriented research, and the operational expertise capacity which is derived from it, is not only an essential prerequisite for the success of in depth defence in terms of safety. Research and expertise can also provide part of the answer to modern society’s expectations of checks and balances, which contribute to make industrial and economic processes reliable, and in this way contribute positively to sustainable development. It therefore seems essential that the United Nations, the IAEA and other organizations, such as the
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European Union and the OECD, support fully the intensification of interna-tional cooperation in this field, so as to facilitate the production of pertinent and commonly accepted scientific information and expertise capacity, and thus to facilitate the emergence of consensus on safety, public health and environmental questions across society.
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