NEA Monthly News Bulletin - January 2010

Nuclear development
Radioactive waste management
Radiological protection
Nuclear science
Nuclear safety and regulation
Data Bank


NEA publications

Nuclear Law Bulletin No. 84
ISSN: 0304-341X. 200 pages.

Experimental Facilities for Gas-cooled Reactor Safety Studies
Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF)
ISBN: 978-92-64-99110-1. 88 pages (684 kb).

Independent Evaluation of the MYRRHA Project
Report by an International Team of Experts
ISBN: 978-92-64-99114-9. 44 pages (257 kb).

CSNI Technical Opinion Papers - No. 12
ISBN: 978-92-64-99116-3. 40 Pages (157 kb).

Disponible également en français :
Avis techniques du CSIN - n° 12
ISBN : 978-92-64-99117-0. 44 pages (181 kb).

NEA News, Volume 27, No. 2
ISSN: 1605-9581. 32 pages (2.6 Mb).

Disponible également en français :
AEN Infos, Volume 27, n° 2
ISSN : 1605-959X. 36 pages (3 Mb).


Nuclear development

On 14-15 December, the NEA hosted a meeting of the High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR). A total of 48 participants attended including members of the HLG-MR and invited representatives of the nuclear regulation community, the medical isotope industry and the nuclear medicine community. The presentations and ensuing discussions at the meeting highlighted the complexity of the issues affecting the reliable supply of medical radioisotopes, especially those related to the economics of the supply chain. Participants welcomed the positive actions that have been taken to date and agreed on a list of actions to further improve the management of the current shortage and to work to increasing reliable supply. This list included developing and implementing communication protocols, further study on economics, regulatory impacts, transport difficulties and processing constraints, and examining opportunities for securing longer-term medical radioisotope supply. The next meeting of the HLG-MR will take place in June 2010.


Radioactive waste management

The third meeting of the NEA Working Group on Reversibility and Retrievability took place on 2-4 December 2009 in Washington, DC, USA. Delegates from 8 countries took part. Topics discussed included experience with retrieval and lessons learnt; limitations on retrievability; the relationship between retrievability and monitoring and memory keeping; and stepwise decision making. The discussions benefited greatly from the presence of representatives from several US agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). There were detailed presentations and animated discussions on the reversibility- and retrievability-related requirements for both the Yucca Mountain project and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), as well as on experience with retrieval of waste containers at WIPP. The next working group meeting is scheduled for June 2010 in Paris, France.


Radiological protection

The NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) met at NEA offices on 8-9 December 2009. Key outcomes included the finalisation of a new document on "Strategic Aspects of Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Management" and further development of the programme for the CRPPH Workshop on Practices and Experiences in Stakeholder Involvement for Post Nuclear Emergency Management (www.oecd-nea.org/rp/washington10/). The WPNEM also finalised the concept and design for its next international nuclear emergency exercise, INEX 4. The exercise, to begin in the latter part of 2010, will be conducted as a series of national table-top exercises focussing on consequence management and transition to recovery in response to a malicious act involving a radiological dispersion device in an urban area. More information can be obtained by contacting the NEA Secretariat.


Nuclear science

The NEA Nuclear Science Committee Bureau met at NEA offices on 16 December 2009 to review its ongoing programme of work. Bureau members approved the closure of the Expert Group on Source Convergence within the Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) and the establishment of a new WPNCS Expert Group on Advanced Monte Carlo Techniques for Criticality Safety Applications. They decided to organise an in-depth discussion at the next committee meeting in June 2010 on progress in the development of nuclear materials, including issues such as oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels, particle fuel coating and the possible use of nanotechnology in material development. Bureau members also reviewed the status of forthcoming meetings and conferences and agreed to support co-sponsorship of the NEMEA-6 meeting in Krakow, Poland, in November 2010, which will address important topics in nuclear data development with special emphasis on uncertainties in data measurements and evaluations, as well as in validation of nuclear data. More information on the NEA science programme is available at this link.



Nuclear safety and regulation

In December 2009, the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) and the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) held their biannual meeting. The following reports were approved for release:


Data Bank

The NEA released a new version of the Java-based nuclear information software (JANIS) in December 2009. JANIS is a display program that facilitates the access to bibliographical, experimental and evaluated nuclear databases. JANIS offers powerful capabilities to display, compare and compute various types of nuclear data (cross-sections, spectra, radioactive decay data and fission yields). The new JANIS 3.1 version allows the user to access the most recent evaluated data libraries (including the latest update of JEFF-3.1) and implements new features to display photon-production data, radioactive Beta-decay spectra, isotopic fission yields, and thermal-neutron scattering cross sections. This new version is available on the JANIS web page at www.oecd-nea.org/janis.

The NEA Thermochemical Database (TDB) and Sorption projects are organising a combined symposium entitled "From Thermodynamics to the Safety Case", on 17-19 May 2010, in Karlsruhe, Germany. The objective of this symposium is to present and to discuss the principal outcomes of these two projects with interested communities (academic institutions, technical support organisations, waste management organisations, regulatory bodies). Emphasis will be placed on illustrating and discussing the successful use and key challenges when applying thermodynamic models and underlying databases to problems of interest to the waste management community as a whole. To register interest, please send an e-mail to thermodynamicsymposium@oecd-nea.org no later than 15 March 2010.

The NEA Data Bank is organising the following training courses and workshops:

  • 9-12 March 2010
    A training course on the Monte Carlo computer code TRIPOLI-4, in co-operation with the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), at the NEA Data Bank, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
  • 29 March - 2 April 2010
    MCNP/MCNPX Training course, NEA Data Bank (co-sponsored by ORNL/RSICC), Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
  • 6-9 April 2010
    Training course on "Analytical Benchmarks: Case Studies in Neutron Transport Theory" using the handbook (including computer codes) published on "Analytical Benchmarks for Nuclear Engineering Applications (Case Studies in Neutron Transport Theory)" at the NEA Data Bank, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. This course is intended for transport methods developers and those who teach reactor physics and transport theory. In addition, the course would be appropriate for anyone with an analytical interest in solving equations and the application of numerical methods to obtain extreme accuracy.
    Teacher: Prof. Barry D. Ganapol.
  • 3-7 May 2010
    SCALE Criticality Safety and Radiation Shielding Course, NEA Data Bank (co-sponsored by ORNL/RSICC), Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
  • 5-8 July 2010
    Training course on PENELOPE - a code system for Monte Carlo simulation of electron and photon transport, Barcelona, Spain.

    Information on registration and details of the courses is available here.

NEA Data Bank newsletter

Computer program services

New computer programs available

06-JAN-2010 NEA-1840 SERPENT 1.1.7, 3-D continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics burn-up calculation, lattice physics applications
(Arrived)
16-DEC-2009 USCD1218 STANEF, ENDF/B Book-keeping Operations for ENDF Format Files
(Tested)
16-DEC-2009 USCD1208 CHECKR, ENDF/B Format Check
(Tested)
16-DEC-2009 USCD1216 PSYCHE, ENDF/B Data Consistency Check in ENDF Format
(Tested)
16-DEC-2009 USCD1209 FIZCON, ENDF/B Cross-Sections Redundancy Check
(Tested)
16-DEC-2009 USCD1235 ENDF-UTILITY-CODES, codes to check and standardise data in the Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF)
(Tested)
14-DEC-2009 NEA-1833 FLUKA2008.3c, Monte Carlo general purpose tool for calculations of particle transport and interactions with matter
(Arrived)

The monthly bulletin only lists new and updated material. It is distributed by e-mail to registered users of the Nuclear Energy Agency's Online Services and is available online at www.oecd-nea.org/general/mnb/.
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An online archive of previous editions is available here.