With ICTP's help, IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety hopes to continue its efforts to improve the operation and safety of nuclear power plants in the developing world.

Safety First

Earthquakes mean trouble--big trouble--wherever and whenever they may strike. But if a nuclear power plant is located near an earthquake zone, a regional or national catastrophe could possibly turn into a global catastrophe.
That's why the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has been involved in safety and risk issues related to earthquakes and other potential natural disasters since the agency's inception in 1957.

Pierre B. Labbe

Pierre B. Labbé, head of the Design Unit within the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety, notes that the agency devotes much of its attention and resources to nuclear nonproliferation issues, seeking to ensure that nuclear materials do not find their way into the wrong hands. But IAEA's mandate also calls on the agency to promote the "peaceful uses of atomic energy," which include the generation of nuclear power. Labbé recently visited ICTP to lecture at the Sixth Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Earthquake Prediction, held from 15 to 27 October 2001.
Worldwide the number of nuclear power units now stands at 438. Together, these plants generate nearly 2500 terawatthours (TWe) of electricity, some 16 percent of the world's total power output.
As Labbé notes, "responsibility for the operation of these plants is divided among 32 nations. Eight of these nations are developing nations and another 8 are nations in economic transition from socialist to capitalist frameworks."
"Our focus has been on such developing countries as Argentina, Armenia, Brazil and Mexico, and such countries in economic transition as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine, all of which have built and operate nuclear power plants, usually just one or two."
Basic scientific knowledge among staff working in these power plants often is equal--if not superior--to the basic scientific knowledge among staff working in nuclear power plants in the developed world. "The problem," Labbé says, "is that staff working in nuclear plants in the developing world don't have the engineering and managerial skills to operate the plants at the same level of efficiency and safety as you find in the developed world. That's where the IAEA can help."
The major shortcomings found in the operation of nuclear power plants in the developing world have evolved around two issues. First, organisations responsible for the oversight of the plants in many of these nations have never devised clear lines of management accountability. That has made it difficult to identify whether the operator, designer or regulator is responsible for a particular aspect of the power plant's performance. "It is easy to see," says Labbé, "why sorting out operating and safety issues would be difficult under such circumstances."
Second, developing nations have failed to devise adequate strategies for quality assurance. That has made it difficult to determine whether a plant's design and construction specifications meet international standards. "As a result," Labbé observes, "we often have difficulty determining with certainty whether the work was done according to plan."
IAEA's involvement in these issues, Labbé says, "has helped spur a great deal of progress in the management and operation of nuclear plants in the developing world." The agency now plans to lend a helping hand in improving the management of some 600 nuclear research facilities, housed in universities, research institutes and hospitals around the world.
Labbé is pleased to see that ties between IAEA and ICTP have been strengthened over the past several years. "The training provided by activities like the Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Earthquake Prediction undoubtedly helps enhance the skills of developing world scientists and technologists," he notes. "At the same time, research conducted by ICTP's SAND (Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth) group has enhanced our knowledge of the mechanisms that drive earthquakes. That, in turn, has helped us attain a better fix on earthquake probability and also on the potential impact that an earthquake may have on structures located within range of the epicentre."

For additional information about IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety, contact p.b.labbe@iaea.org or see www.iaea.org/ns.

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