NEA Mandates and Structures


Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS)

Chair(s): Kostadin IVANOV, United States
Secretary:  Ian HILL
(ian.hill@oecd-nea.org)
Vice-Chair(s): Hakim FERROUKHI, Switzerland
Member(s):All NEA member countries*
Russia (Suspended*)
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council.
Full participant(s): European Commission
Under the NEA Statute
Observer(s)(International Organisation): International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
Date of creation:30 June 2004
End of mandate:30 June 2022

Mandate (Document reference):

  • Agreed at the 15th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2004 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2004)3]
  • Extended at the 21st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2010 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
  • Revised at the 9th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems in June 2012 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2012)7]
  • Extended and revised at the 24th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2013 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2013)2]
  • Extended and revised at the 27th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2016 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]
  • Extended and revised at the 30th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2019 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2019)2, forthcoming]
  • Mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS) [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)11]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)11]

[...]

Scope

Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the Working Party will deal with reactor physics, radiation transport & dosimetry, core thermal-hydraulics, fuel performance, and associated multi-physics aspects for present and future nuclear power systems. As such, it will study the modelling of reactor systems, verification and validation and uncertainties quantification (VVUQ) associated with single-physics phenomena and liaise with the Expert Group on Multi-Physics Experimental Data, Benchmarks and Validation (EGMPEBV) for VVUQ of multi-physics applications.

Objectives

  • To provide Members with up-to-date information to preserve knowledge on and develop consensus regarding reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, radiation transport and dosimetry, fuel behaviour and dynamics, and multi-physics aspects associated with nuclear power systems, aimed at providing technical underpinning of the assessment of system performance and safety.
  • To provide advice to the nuclear community on the developments needed to meet the requirements (data and methods, validation experiments, scenario studies) for the assessment of different reactor systems.

Reactor types considered include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Present generation light-water reactors (LWRs) with advanced and innovative fuels, evolutionary and innovative LWRs and heavy-water reactors (HWRs);
  • Advanced reactor systems;
  • Accelerator driven (sub-critical) and critical systems for waste transmutation.

The WPRS will liaise closely with other relevant NEA working parties, especially those operating under the guidance of the NSC and Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), to ensure the respective work programmes are complementary, to provide advice and support where required and undertake common work where appropriate. In particular, close working relationships will be maintained with the NSC Working Party on Scientific Issues in Fuel Cycle (WPFC) and Working Party on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels and Structural Materials for Nuclear Systems (WPMM), as well as with the CSNI Working Group on Analysis and Management of Accidents (WGAMA) and Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS). Activities of the WPRS will support efforts by the EGMPEBV in its efforts to establish validation guidance for multi-physics applications and design of experiments for multi-physics validation.

Deliverables

The WPRS will work with its expert groups to produce the deliverables contained in the expert group mandates given below.

  • International Reactor Physics Experiments Technical Review Group [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)12, forthcoming]
  • Expert Group on Reactor Physics and Advanced Nuclear Systems [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2018)2]
  • Expert Group on Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2018)3]
  • Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)13, forthcoming]
  • Expert Group on Radiation Transport and Shielding [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)14, forthcoming]
  • Expert Group on Reactor Core Thermal-Hydraulics [NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2019)15, forthcoming]