Co-sponsored meetings and conferences

This Symposium is designed to meet the needs of nuclear utility professionals with responsibilities in the areas of radiation exposure control and health physics. The focus will be on all aspects of nuclear plant radiation exposure management and control including: source term reduction, health physics program design and routine operations, ALARA management, improved techniques and tools, safety and cost reduction. The conference will also provide a forum for information exchange between vendors and other members of the industry.

VALues in Decisions On Risk (VALDOR) addresses theory and overall approaches as well as practical case studies. It is expected that the Symposium will highlight problems and ways forward in the areas in focus as well as give examples of good practice from case studies. VALDOR 2006 will focus on nuclear waste management, electromagnetic fields, cleaning-up and remediation of sites contaminated with chemicals and certain topics in biotechnology.

The objective of the PSAM conferences is to promote rational decision making to assure safety and reliability and to optimise the use of resources for complex systems. This is to be achieved through the use of risk assessment and risk management methods. The conferences provide a public forum for information exchanges covering both theory and applications of these methods to the design and operation of technological systems and processes.

Waste management and decommissioning are among the top priorities of the nuclear industry. The issue of safe and environmentally friendly waste disposal is crucial to improve public understanding. Several reactors are expected to be shut down in the coming two decades so the decommissioning of nuclear facilities has become increasingly important. Therefore in the context of a renewed public and political debate on the role of nuclear in the energy mix to help meet Kyoto requirements, both issues have become vital to the future of nuclear. The technical programme will include debates on the state-of-the-art technology and R&D of waste treatment and disposal, national and international regulatory aspects, stakeholder involvement, and public communication.

The meeting will cover scientific, as well as strategic/policy developments in the field of P&T, such as:

• the role of P&T in advanced nuclear fuel cycles, including impacts on waste management policies;
• developments in partitioning and management of the wastes produced;
• the technology of dedicated accelerator-driven systems as transmutation devices, including developments in accelerators, materials (targets, coolants) and fuels;
• the performance of advanced reactors (Generation IV) and dedicated systems for transmutation and the safety of the latter;
• R&D needs, including benchmarks, data improvements, experiments and the role of international collaboration.

This international workshop will foster the exchange of state-of-the-art knowledge in the area of assessing internal exposure. It follows previous meetings on internal dosimetry held in Versailles , France (1988); Elmau , Germany (1991); Bath, UK (1993); Avignon, France (1998) and Oxford, UK (2002), and will supplement the knowledge gained in the NEA-sponsored SILENE dosimetry inter-comparison exercise (2002).

The objective of TopFuel is to offer a platform to LWR fuel professionals to discuss developments and exchange experiences and support professional excellence in the field. Areas covered by TopFuel in 2006 include advances in fuel design and fabrication, advanced fuel cycles, fuel cycle strategies and core management, operational experience, analysis methods and models, transportation, licensing and safety requirements, and reprocessing.

As a continuation of the CRPPH work to contribute to the improvement of the international system of radiological protection, the NEA is sponsoring the third forum. This meeting will offer relevant stakeholders, including the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health itself, the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the ICRP concerning possible implications of the draft ICRP recommendations that are expected to be released for public comment in May 2006.

This workshop is the second of a series of three workshops that began in Salamanca, Spain. All three have been designed to share experience in engaging stakeholders in radiological protection. The focus of this workshop will be on sharing views and experience and lessons among relevant stakeholders, such as local elected officials, NGOs and local associations, university professors, RP professionals, etc. This meeting, as well as the other two in this series, is very largely based upon results and experience from the NEA's Villigen workshops, carrying this work forward based on local, practical experience.