NEA Monthly News Bulletin

Covers new material for May 2009:

Nuclear safety and regulation
Radiological protection
Data Bank

NEA publications


Questions stratégiques et politiques liées à la transition des systèmes nucléaires thermiques aux systèmes rapides
ISBN 978-92-64-06066-1. 90 pages.

English already available:
Strategic and Policy Issues Raised by the Transition from Thermal to Fast Nuclear Systems
ISBN 978-92-64-06064-7. 84 pages.

Mobile Fission and Activation Products in Nuclear Waste Disposal
ISBN 978-92-64-99072-2. 48 pages (11 kb).

Nuclear safety and regulation


RWM publications and reportsThe OECD/NEA joint project on Thermal-hydraulics, Hydrogen, Aerosols and Iodine (THAI) held an expert meeting on Setting Priorities to Address Unresolved Containment Issues in Case of Severe Accident, in Berlin, Germany in May, attracting 40 participants from 15 countries. Topics likely to be included in a proposed follow-up to this project from the 16 topics presented will be:

  • high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) confinement;
  • fission products: iodine and aerosols;
  • hydrogen: passive autocatalytic recombiners (PAR) performance and hydrogen combustion.

This follow-up project does not preclude participation in the current THAI project and is planned for a three-year period (2010-2012). All OECD/NEA member countries will be invited to participate.

Radiological protection


RWM publications and reportsThe annual meeting of the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) took place in May. The Committee reviewed  work proposals for eight working groups and approved the draft programmes for several forthcoming workshops: the 5th Asian Regional Workshop on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection (Japan, September 2009); Science and Values in Radiological Protection (RP) Decision Making (France, November 2009); and Post-emergency Management (United States, October 2010).

The CRPPH Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) held its bi-annual meeting, focusing largely on the planning of the 4th International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-4). In addition to providing a mechanism for countries to test their processes and procedures for such events, the exercise will address the international aspects of consequence management. The WPNEM plans to conduct the exercise in 2010.

The Bureau of the Information System for Occupational Exposure (ISOE) held its mid-year meeting to review the status of the ISOE programme of work and the ISOE "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" (ALARA) symposia, to discuss migration of ISOE resources to the ISOE Network website, and to examine possible co-operation with the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) on the provision of relevant data. The mid-year meeting of the ISOE Working Group on Data Analysis (WGDA) focused on improving the completeness of the ISOE occupational exposure data and evolution of the ISOE database to better address users' needs.

Finally, the CRPPH continued its work on the revision of the International Basic Safety Standard (BSS), which will be co-sponsored by the NEA. The Secretariat has arranged for four review and assessment meetings in May and June to review the currently available Rev 2.0 draft of the BSS, including a WPNEM review of emergency situations, an ISOE review of occupational exposure aspects, a Tokyo meeting to gather Asian comments, and a fourth meeting to offer CRPPH members an opportunity to comment on the draft.

Data Bank


NEA Data Bank newsletter

Computer program services

New computer programs available

27-MAY-2009 NEA-1839 ACAB-2008, ACtivation ABacus Code
(Arrived)
26-MAY-2009 NEA-1840 SERPENT 1.1.0, 3-D continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics burnup calculation, lattice physics applications
(Arrived)
20-MAY-2009 NEA-1847 ZZ MATJEFF31.BOLIB, JEFF-3.1 Multi-group Coupled (199n + 42gamma) X-Section Library in MATXS Format for Nuclear Fission Applications
(Tested)
13-MAY-2009 USCD1236 ZZ SCALE5.1/COVA-44G, 44-group cross-section covariance matrix library extracted from SCALE5.1
ZZ SCALE6.0/COVA-44G, 44-group cross-section covariance matrix library extracted from SCALE6.0
(Tested)
04-MAY-2009 NEA-1833 FLUKA2008.3b.0, Monte Carlo general purpose tool for calculations of particle transport and interactions with matter
(Arrived)

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