Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI)
Working methods
The CSNI meets twice per year to discuss nuclear safety and regulatory issues, review the work performed, and decide on the future programme.
This programme of work is carried out mostly by working groups. These working groups meet once or twice per year to discuss progress and to integrate their efforts; they often rely on the work of task groups to complete specific tasks.
Typical "products" are as follows:
- Several specialist meetings and workshops are organised each year, addressing specific topics .
- State-of-the-Art reports and "situation reports" bring together the latest developments in a given area or give a "snapshot picture" of the international situation regarding a particular issue, stimulate the formation of common understanding, and provide a source of up-to-date information for those countries that may not have an activity in the area.
- International Standard Problems (ISP) are comparative exercises in which predictions of different computer codes for a given physical problem are compared with each other or with the results of a carefully controlled experimental study. The main goal of ISP exercises is to increase confidence in the validity and accuracy of tools which are used in assessing the safety of nuclear installations.
- Somewhat related to the ISP programme is the establishment of sets of experiments for use in comparing codes. Known as a Code Validation Matrix, the results of such an extensive list of experiments are collected and stored in the NEA Data Bank for the purpose that they be made available to Member countries wishing to validate relevant codes.
Related links
CSNI strategic
plan 
(pdf, 26 kb)
CSNI structure (clickable image map, 47 kb)
CSNI members' area (password protected)
Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) overview