ATENA held its fifth "ATENA Forum 2023" on February 16, 2023. The event was organized as a hybrid event that combines onsite attendance and online distribution using ZOOM Webinar.
About 500 people attended the event at the venue or online, including participants from ATENA member organizations such as nuclear operators, manufacturers and nuclear industry organizations, Government offices such as the Nuclear Regulation Authority and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, local governments, media, and the general public.
Date and time： 4:00 pm to 5:45 pm JST, Thursday, February 16, 2023
Form of Event： Hybrid event that combines onsite attendance and online distribution using ZOOM Webinar
Program
- 1．Opening Remarks
- 2．Greeting message
- 3．Keynote Speech
- 4．Panel Discussion
- 5．Closing remarks
- Program and Presentation Materials for ATENA Forum 2023:Click here
1．Opening Remarks（Hiroto Uozumi, President & CEO, ATENA）
Mr. Uozumi made opening remarks for "ATENA Forum 2023".
(7 min 1 sec)
2．Greeting message（Chairman Shinsuke Yamanaka, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japan）
Chairman Yamanaka commented that "the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) was established based on the lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of TEPCO, and NRA has firmly resolved never to allow such an accident to happen again. This thought must be shared with ATENA."
"When I was appointed as a chairman, I expressed my priorities of focusing on disseminating information, engaging in dialogue, paying attention to site operations, and enhancing capacity building of NRA staff. These initiatives are something that leads to the expectations of ATENA." He also expressed the expectations of ATENA in three areas: (1) backfitting and safety improvement; (2) safety and security; and (3) human resource development.
（11 min 25 sec）
3．Keynote speech（Maria Korsnick, CEO of NEI）
Ms. Korsnick pointed out the followings:
・As a global trend to reinforce energy security, there has been a policy shift toward promoting nuclear power as the most scalable, reliable, affordable, and clean source.
・The international partnership between NEI and ATENA is extremely important in achieving the transition to clean energy.
（5 min 34 sec）
4．Panel discussion
- Theme：
- ATENA's efforts of enhancing nuclear safety - What have been accomplished and what should be pursued from now -
- Moderator：
- Akira Yamaguchi,
Director, Nuclear Safety Research Association - Panelists：
- George Apostolakis,
Director, Nuclear Risk Research Center
Shinji Kinjo,
Director,Nuclear Regulation Policy Planning Division,The Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japan
Hitoshi Mizuta,
Executive Vice President, Deputy Chief Nuclear Officer The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.
Akio Yamamoto,
Professor, Nagoya University
Yoshihiro Tomioka,
Director, ATENA
Dr. Yamaguchi facilitated a panel discussion session on the following two discussion points.
(1)Efforts for solving the common technical issuesbr> (2)Proactive dialogue with NRA
Panelists provided various suggestions and comments on expected function and the future direction of ATENA.
（1 hour 12 minutes 5 seconds）
"In order to deal with the expectations and daily specific issues expressed by the regulators, ATENA should respond to them in more quick and flexible manner." (Mr. Mizuta)
"The US-NRC proactively uses risk information to improve safety. I am disappointed that the metrics which can demonstrate quantitatively to what extent safety is improved have not been introduced yet in Japan. Since PRA is on the table, it should be deployed on a broader scale." (Dr. Apostolakis)
"Using risk information is extremely important. There must be two way approaches, one is for events that occur during normal operations and the other is for low-frequency high impact events. For the former, PRA models are not being used sufficiently in SDP process of NRA, so enhanced use of PRA should be required." (Professor Yamamoto)
"The regulatory authority is putting primary priority to the discussion from scientific and technical perspectives. In my view, ATENA, on the other hand, usually starts the discussion of efficiency--the perspectives are not aligning." (Mr. Kinjo)
"Safety and efficiency are not necessarily a trade-off. We can pursue both efficiency and safety. PRA identifies various event sequences which provides a very good insights of event evolution and consequences. Including these, we will aim to increase the value of nuclear power and ensure safety as well with using PRA." (Mr. Tomioka)
As a closing, Dr. Yamaguchi looked back on the discussions and expressed his concluding remarks, "I want ATENA to consider again what they will be doing, with taking account of the roles of JANSI and other organizations."
5．Closing remarks（Osamu Sakai, Director, ATENA）
Mr. Sakai delivered closing remarks for "ATENA Forum 2023".
（5 minutes 15 seconds）
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