Technical Meeting on the Review of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-48 Ageing Management and Development of a Programme for Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants

Background

During recent years, many Member States have decided to license further operation of nuclear power plants beyond the already once extended operation period, or to keep extending the lifetime based on 10-yearly periodic safety reviews. SSG-48 was published in 2018 and has been used since then by Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation (SALTO) mission reviewers, the International Generic Ageing Lessons Learned (IGALL) programme, and by individual nuclear power plants (NPPs) in developing and implementing ageing management activities and preparing for long term operation (LTO). Additionally, States and regulatory bodies also use this Safety Guide to develop and improve ageing management and LTO-related regulations and guidance. As a result of these activities, a considerable amount of information and experience has been collected regarding areas where the Safety Guide can be improved or supplemented.?

In addition, it is expected that the subsequent LTOs being considered or implemented at NPPs would not identify significantly different approaches, but still justify the revision and adjustment of the Safety Guide, mainly in terms of managing technical and non-technical challenges such as new ageing phenomena and supply chain issues.

Several IAEA Safety Standards that have an impact on SSG-48 have been updated since 2018 and in addition several safety reports have been published that may need to be taken into consideration for the revision.?

SSG-48 was published in 2018, so the typical 10-year revision period has arrived; the revision will now be started in order to publish Revision 1 in 2029.?

A Document Preparation Profile (DPP) was developed for the revision of the document that has been submitted to the Nuclear Safety Standards Committee for approval. The DPP generally describes the areas of revision that will be undertaken. By the time of the Technical Meeting the approved DPP will be available to participants.

Objectives

The meeting has the following primary objectives:

• To collect Member States’ experience with the use of SSG-48 in order to extend and confirm the revision areas described in the DPP.
• To finalize the revision areas based on the comments from the Member States.
• To discuss how and what extent SSG-48 should address SMRs and advanced technologies.
• To describe the revision plan to the plenum of experts and finalize it based on the comments.
• To discuss and agree on the main directions of the review including the structure of Revision 1 of SSG-48.
• To start the revision of SSG-48 by developing draft text for some sections along with the revision aspects.

Target Audience

Participation is solicited from staff members of regulatory bodies, NPP operators, utility organizations, as well as from international organizations engaged in activities related to ageing management and long term operation of nuclear power plants. To ensure maximum effectiveness in the exchange of information, participants should be persons actively involved in the subject of the meeting.??

The meeting is, in principle, open to all officially designated persons. The IAEA, however, reserves the right to restrict participation due to limitations imposed by the available facilities. It is, therefore, recommended that interested persons take the necessary steps for the official designation as early as possible.

Participation

In order to be designated by an IAEA Member State, participants are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) to their competent national authority (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the IAEA or National Atomic Energy Authority) for onward transmission to the IAEA by 1 August 2025. Participants who are members of an international organization (WANO, EPRI, EC-JRC, or OECD) invited to attend are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) through their organization to the IAEA by the above deadline.

In order to be designated by an IAEA Member State or invited organization, participants are requested to submit their application via the InTouch+ platform.

Venue

The event will be held at the Vienna International Centre (VIC), where the IAEA’s Headquarters are located. Participants must make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.