IAEA: COMPLETION OF THIRD GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000012

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR USOECD: MCLAPPER
STATE FOR ISN/NESS - BURKART AND CARNAHAN
NE - MCGINNIS AND WELLING

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ENRG TRGY KNNP IAEA
SUBJECT: IAEA: COMPLETION OF THIRD GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP
(GNEP) INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT WORKING GROUP MEETING


1. This cable is for information only.


2. Summary: The GNEP Infrastructure Development Working Group
(IDWG) held its third meeting on December 8, 2008, in Vienna,
Austria in conjunction with a workshop on Radioactive Waste
Management and a Resources and Gaps Workshop on December 9. The
U.S. hosted the meeting as chair of the IDWG. All GNEP partners,
candidate partners and observers (listed in Para. 3) were invited to
attend. Over 70 representatives from GNEP partner countries,
observer organizations and observer countries attended the meeting
and workshops. Participants welcomed participation by new GNEP
partners Armenia, Estonia and Morocco and new observer countries
Latvia and Vietnam. At the meeting and workshops, priorities and
activities for the working group's 2009 Program Plan were
identified. During the Radioactive Waste Management Workshop,
participants agreed to form a subgroup of the IDWG to address
radioactive waste management issues. The Resources and Gaps
Workshop featured speakers from government, industry and
nongovernmental organizations to address human resource development
in areas that included stakeholder engagement, reactor siting, legal
and regulatory frameworks and the future of global human resource
needs. The area of human resource development, identified by IDWG
members as their main area of concern, was a main focus area of the
meetings and will continue to be addressed through IDWG activities
in 2009. Other areas that will continue to be covered by the IDWG
in 2009 include legal and regulatory framework development, nuclear
energy assessments and building the IDWG Resource Library. IDWG
activities will be expanded in 2009 to address the potential use of
small and medium sized reactors.


3. Background: On September 16, 2007, GNEP was formally established
at a ministerial meeting in Vienna, Austria when 16 countries signed
the GNEP Statement of Principles (SOP). The ministerial meeting set
the GNEP structure of an Executive Committee, a Steering Group and
working groups on Infrastructure Development and Reliable Nuclear
Fuel Services. At its first meeting in December 2007, the Steering
Group adopted Terms of Reference for the two working groups. The
second GNEP Executive Committee ministerial meeting was held October
1, 2008 in Paris, France. GNEP presently consists of 25 Partners:
Armenia, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Estonia, France, Ghana,
Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea,
Lithuania, Morocco, Oman, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation,
Senegal, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.
There are three GNEP observer organizations: the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),Euratom, and the Generation IV
International Forum (GIF). Additionally, there are 28 countries the
GNEP partners have invited to join GNEP and which may attend
meetings as observers: Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, Germany,
Greece, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria,
Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania,
Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. Bahrain may
participate only as an observer until a comprehensive safeguards
agreement is brought into force.


4. Infrastructure Development Working Group Information: The
objective of the IDWG is to support the GNEP SOP objective to
"expand nuclear power to help meet growing energy demand in a
sustainable manner and in a way that provides safe operations of
Nuclear Power Plants and management of wastes" by facilitating the


development of the infrastructure needed for worldwide expansion of
clean, sustainable, nuclear energy worldwide in a safe and secure
manner, while at the same time reducing the risk of nuclear
proliferation. In the IDWG meetings in March and July 2008,
participants discussed the foremost needs of countries developing or
expanding nuclear power programs and developed a program plan that
summarized partners' main infrastructure development needs and
challenges and outlined IDWG activities to address those needs and
challenges. This year, the IDWG created an on-line resource library
to provide partners with information on infrastructure development
references, programs, tools, and other resources, performed a
nuclear energy feasibility study in Jordan, compiled information on
countries' human resource development experience and lessons
learned, developed a plan to link up with specialist organizations
in the global nuclear power arena and held a Resources and Gaps
Workshop.


5. Meeting Participation: All GNEP partners, candidate partners and
observers were invited to send representatives to the IDWG meeting
and workshops. While GNEP provides for candidate partners and
observers to actively participate in meetings, only GNEP partners
(countries who are signatories to the GNEP Statement of Principles)
may participate in the decision-making process. Partner countries
that attended the IDWG meeting were Armenia, Bulgaria, Canada,
China, Estonia, France, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan,
Republic of Korea, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation,
United Kingdom and the United States. Candidate partner/observer
countries in attendance were Germany, Latvia, Mexico and Vietnam.
The IAEA and GIF participated as observer organizations.


6. IDWG Meeting Objectives: The objectives of the IDWG meeting were
to identify priorities and activities for the IDWG 2009 Program
Plan. Chairman Craig Welling of the U.S. Department of Energy began
the meeting with a status report of the 2008 Program Plan activities
and a review of the infrastructure development discussions from the
2008 GNEP Executive Committee meeting in Paris, France on October 1,

2008. In addition, participants welcomed new GNEP partner countries
Armenia, Estonia and Morocco. Representatives from these three
countries presented their countries' views on the main
infrastructure development needs and challenges, potential
opportunities for GNEP cooperation to help address these needs and
challenges and review of ongoing infrastructure activities.


7. IDWG Human Resource Development Activities: Patrice Bernard from
the French Atomic Energy Commission presented an update on the IDWG
activity area of human resource development which included an
analysis of the results from the Human Resource Development
Compilation papers provided by several IDWG countries. Among
lessons learned resulting from the papers are the importance of
legal frameworks with implementation of the different national
bodies such as government agencies, educational institutions and
industry; the importance of stakeholder and public interaction, the
international dimension of nuclear energy and the sharing of
experience and good practices in nuclear power plant operations,
safety approaches and standards and industry partnering. Partners
were encouraged to submit a paper if they have not already done so
to be able to deepen the analysis and potentially develop an
understanding of the broader global human resource needs for the
future. Ideas discussed included the possibility of developing an
international skills passport to facilitate the global mobility of

nuclear sector personnel. The IAEA suggested that a global skills
assessment be created in addition to those being developed for
individual countries. It was also suggested that a set of common
vocabulary in the legal and regulatory areas be created which would
better allow for the transfer of experience and skills from one
country to another.


8. Resource Library Update: The U.S. provided a demonstration of
the IDWG Resource Library including how to find and enter
information on available resources. Suggestions for the next steps
in building the library include continuing to expand the information
available, the creation of a "blog" section, user review and ranking
of the resources, and the ability to identify who provided specific
Resource Library entries.


9. Nuclear Energy Feasibility Studies: Craig Welling presented
information on GNEP activities in the area of supporting partner
countries in assessments for potential nuclear energy programs. The
assessment performed in Jordan will help improve the process that
can be used for nuclear power assessments based on the IAEA
Milestones. It was suggested that there be an assessment or
evaluation tool created to address the preparatory process needed to
reach Milestone 1, "National Position." The IAEA stated that the
"Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for
Nuclear Power" and "Evaluation of the Status of National Nuclear
Infrastructure Development" can be used to help countries perform
self-assessments. One potential concern raised was the availability
of expertise for performing these self-assessments; this was
identified as one area in which GNEP could provide support. It was
also noted that industry participation in assessments could be

beneficial.


10. Engagement with External Entities: Representatives from the
United Kingdom and Generation IV International Forum presented an
updated paper regarding specialist organizations relevant to IDWG
activities. As a next-step they noted that it would be beneficial
to invite some organizations to come to speak at the next IDWG
workshop, especially individuals from those organizations most
directly relevant to priorities noted in the IDWG Program Plan.
These could include human resource development or the legal and
regulatory development area.


11. Small and Medium Sized Reactors (SMRs): Craig Welling reviewed
the status of the SMR area, first introduced by the U.S. at the May
2008 GNEP Steering Group meeting in Jordan. It was agreed that the
IDWG will hold a SMR workshop on status of new designs,
certification of those designs and related specific infrastructure
issues.


12. Radioactive Waste Management Workshop: The United Kingdom led a
GNEP Working Group workshop on Radioactive Waste Management. The
objectives of this workshop were to summarize the rationale for
focus in this area; to gain consensus on either creating a new
working group or undertaking waste management activities as a part
of the IDWG; and to identify specific activities in the area of
radioactive waste management. A representative from the UK's
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) presented the rationale for
creating a radioactive waste management strategy in GNEP, including
building confidence among stakeholders, regulatory drivers, and
creating a stronger business strategy. Some proposed activities

were human capital development, exchanging information on
calculations and costing methodology, identifying and addressing
research and development gaps and providing lessons learned. The UK
indicated the proposed working group would address regional waste
repositories but would not interfere with countries' domestic
policies on radioactive waste. It was agreed by the partners that
the IDWG would form a subgroup and that the first task of the
subgroup will be to agree upon a list of activities. It was also
determined that a formal Terms of Reference will not be necessary
because radioactive waste management will be a subgroup of the IDWG.
The UK suggested that each country identify an expert to
participate in the subgroup.


13. Resources and Gaps Workshop: On December 9, 2008, the IDWG held
a Resources and Gaps Workshop that featured experts from government,
industry and educational organizations to share information on
available resources and discuss ways in which GNEP partners can
create, complement and/or enhance efforts to promote human resource
development solutions. Focus areas of the workshop included human
resource development in stakeholder engagement, reactor siting and
legal and regulatory frameworks. The workshop also addressed the
development of an overview picture of future global human resource
development needs and how the IDWG can start to understand and
potentially help address the big picture for future human resource
needs. The workshop began with five partner countries, Hungary,
Jordan, Estonia, Italy and Jordan, presenting an overview of their
human resource needs. The first panel focused on stakeholder
engagement and panelists provided examples of different approaches
in this area. Participants in the second panel discussed ways to
address the development of human resources in regulatory agencies

and provided examples of what some regulatory agencies are doing to
address the growing need for staff with the planned expansion of
nuclear power. In the panel on siting, panelists discussed the
human resource needs for siting studies as well as industry efforts
and the IAEA's activities and recommendations. Panels 4 and 5
focused on human resource development resources and the big picture
for future human resource needs. Panelists in the fourth session
provided specific examples of what their governments or companies
are doing to build human resources and Panel 5 examined how GNEP
partners are looking forward to understanding and developing human
resources of the future and ways the IDWG could better understand
global human resource needs and work together to meet these needs.
At the conclusion of the meeting, IDWG Chairman Craig Welling
provided a summary of the day's discussions and next steps for the
IDWG.


14. Next Steps: IDWG partners agreed by consensus that the next
IDWG meeting would be held in May 2009 in the United Kingdom.

SCHULTE