NEA Mandates and Structures


NUCLEAR SCIENCE COMMITTEE (NSC)

Chair(s): Kemal O. PASAMEHMETOGLU, United States
Secretary:  Tatiana IVANOVA
(tatiana.ivanova@oecd-nea.org)
Vice-Chair(s): Hamid AIT ABDERRAHIM, Belgium
Gilles BIGNAN, France
Kazufumi TSUJIMOTO, Japan
Andreas PAUTZ, 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:01 October 1991
End of mandate:31 December 2026

Mandate (Document reference):

  • Terms of Reference for the Committee and an Executive Group [NEA/SEN/NSC(91)1]
  • Review of the NEA Committee Structure [NEA/NE(2000)11/REV1]
  • Review of Mandates of the NEA Standing Technical Committees [NEA/NE(2005)2]
  • Summary of Decisions Taken at the 117th Session of the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy [NEA/SUM/DEC(2008)2]
  • Review of the NEA Standing Technical Committee Mandates [NEA/NE(2010)7]
  • Summary of Decisions Taken at the 121st Session of the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy [NEA/SUM/DEC(2010)2]
  • Review of the Mandates of NEA Bodies Reporting Directly to the Steering Committee [NEA/NE(2016)5]
  • Summary of Decisions Taken at the 133rd Session of the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy [NEA/SUM/DEC(2016)2] 
  • Report on the Prioritisation of Activities by the NEA Standing Technical Committees and the Management Board for the Development, Application and Validation of Nuclear Data and Codes (MBDAV) [NEA/NE(2020)15]
  • Summary Record of the 31st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2020)20] (forthcoming)
  • Summary Record of the Remote 140th Session of the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy held from 28 to 30 October 2020 [NEA/SUM(2020)3] (forthcoming)
  • Mandate of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) approved under the written procedure on 18 December 2020 by the Steering Committee members [NEA/NE(2020)23]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document NEA/NE(2020)23

Background

At the invitation of the NEA Steering Committee to all NEA standing technical committees, the NSC launched a prioritisation exercise in 2020. As part of this process, the mandate of the NSC has been revised and NSC activities have been prioritised and restructured in order to improve efficiency and maintain the high standard of NSC deliverables while addressing the activities according to the priorities indicated by the member countries.

Mandate

The general objective of the NEA in the field of nuclear science is to help member countries identify, collect, compile, develop, preserve and disseminate the basic scientific and technical knowledge required to ensure the safe, reliable and economic operation of current and next-generation nuclear systems and to promote innovation.

Research capabilities and technical expertise in basic disciplines, such as nuclear data, reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, neutronics, fuel thermo-mechanical behaviour, fuel cycle physics and chemistry, material science and radiation physics, are needed to develop nuclear programmes and to maintain and enhance a high level of performance and safety. Advancing this body of knowledge is central to addressing issues of importance for the current generation of nuclear facilities, and it is essential to the design, construction and operation of new reactors, fuel cycles and other nuclear facilities. Future nuclear technologies will greatly benefit from the systematic accumulation of knowledge in these areas.

Fostering the active identification, collection, compilation, preservation, and development of this scientific knowledge in an international framework and, enhancing the dissemination of the results is vital to the effective performance of nuclear activities. The shared analysis of this information and data in an international framework contributes to the identification of promising new technical options, the acceleration of innovation deployment and the building of a robust skills capability across the nuclear science community.

To achieve these objectives, through appropriate collaboration frameworks, the Committee will:

  • co-ordinate and approve the creation, extension and disbanding of subsidiary bodies (i.e. working parties, expert groups and task forces);
  • organise international standard problem (benchmark) exercises, with a view to arriving at a consensus on the preferred state-of-the-art modelling and computation methods to be used in different application areas;
  • support the identification, evaluation and collection of integral experiment data and development of relational databases to be used for validation purposes in different application areas;
  • support the maintenance and development of skills capabilities in the nuclear energy sector;
  • disseminate and communicate the work of the NSC bodies through the publication of workshop proceedings, technical reports, articles, international standards, reports directed at a wide audience, webinars and social media content in a variety of networking platforms;
  • where appropriate, promote the establishment of joint undertakings;
  • support the co-sponsorship of international scientific workshop and conferences;
  • co-ordinate work and collaborate with other international bodies, including the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Advancing the existing knowledge and expertise through innovative collaborative research is a critical element of the Committee’s mission. The areas of activity will cover, but not be limited to:

  • nuclear physics, nuclear data measurements and evaluations;
  • mathematical models and computation science including multi-physics and multi-scale modelling approaches;
  • reactor systems (critical and sub-critical) physics, including neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, chemistry, structural mechanics and material science;
  • criticality safety issues;
  • fuel cycle, including fuel backend, physics, chemistry, material science and scenarios;
  • nuclear fuels and core materials, including multi-scale modelling and new irradiation experiments in material test reactors;
  • radiation shielding and dosimetry;
  • nuclear energy deployment and integration;
  • preservation and renewal of expertise in nuclear science, education and training;
  • co-ordination of efforts to preserve and develop research infrastructure;
  • advanced instrumentation, measurement methods and techniques;
  • Big Data and Machine Learning in nuclear science;
  • distillation of lessons from non-nuclear high-technology domains, such as predictive maintenance and advanced manufacturing.

Within the NSC, the main areas of activities are realised by Working Parties (WPs). Under the WPs, Expert Groups (EG), Sub-groups (SGs) and Task Forces (TFs) are established to focus on a specific topic. The mandates of WPs and EGs directly under the NSC last three years. As part of the restructuring process for technical activities under the NSC, the duration of the mandates of level 3 bodies (i.e. expert groups under the current existing level 2 working parties) is increased to three years to be aligned with the NSC programme of work. Historically the NSC has also established sub-groups (SGs) and Task Forces (TFs) to focus on specific topics. In order to improve the efficiency of NSC activities, whenever a new activity focuses on a specific scope with well-defined deliverables and schedule, the default will be to launch a fixed-duration Task Force. The previous “Sub-group” terminology will be gradually replaced by “Task Force”. To further improve efficiency, the NSC’s level 2 or 3 body may launch a TF, which will be directly mandated in, and overseen by, the level 2 or level 3 body that launches the TF. 

In the fulfilment of its mandate, the Committee will interact with other standing technical committees of the Agency in matters of common interest and with other competent bodies within the Organisation, as well as with NEA divisions and other international organisations, as appropriate.