The NEA has been invited to perform the Technical Secretariat functions for the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP). MDEP is a multinational initiative taken by national safety authorities to develop innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of the national regulatory authorities who are currently or will be tasked with the review of new reactor power plant designs.
Current MDEP members include the regulators from Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The International Atomic Energy Agency participates in key portions of MDEP activities. The 2010 MDEP Annual Report is publicly available and documents the accomplishments to date resulting from the MDEP effort and the focus of future work.
More details about MDEP membership categories may be found in the Terms of Reference
The MDEP programme incorporates a broad range of activities including:
A key concept throughout the work of MDEP is that national regulators retain sovereign authority for all licensing and regulatory decisions.
The programme is implemented under the MDEP Policy Group and the Steering Technical Committee (STC) in accordance with the Terms of Reference with the NEA serving as the technical secretariat. Two lines of activity have been established to carry out the work including exploration of opportunities for harmonisation of regulatory practices and co-operating on safety reviews of specific reactor designs.The MDEP engages key stakeholders involved in ensuring the safety of new reactor design, manufacturing, construction and eventual operation. At this time, these stakeholders include other national regulatory authorities and international organisations involved in ensuring nuclear safety including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA), NEA Committees on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) and Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), the various reactor vendors, nuclear component manufacturers, mechanical and electrical standards development organisations, reactor operators and licensees and key industry representatives such as World Nuclear Association (WNA). Public interactions on specific new reactor issues are left to each regulator to communicate as necessary.
In an effort to communicate MDEP activities with various stakeholders, the Second MDEP Conference on New Reactor Design Activities was held at the OECD Conference Centre on 15-16 September 2011. The agenda, presentations, and list of participants may be found here.
Working groups for each new reactor design will share information and co-operate on specific reactor design evaluations and construction. Participants in these working groups will include the countries that are actively reviewing, preparing to review or constructing the specific reactor design. Design-specific working groups will be formed when three or more countries express interest in working together.
A EPR working group has been established to conduct the activities previously being carried out by the United States, Finland and France to share information on the EPR safety review and includes the United Kingdom and China as new members.
An AP1000 working group has been established including the United States, the United Kingdom and China, to share information on the AP1000 safety review. When appropriate, other designs including Generation IV designs may be included as working groups.
Working groups have been organised for the technical and regulatory process areas within the MDEP Plan of Work. These currently include:
Last reviewed: 20 September 2011