Technical support and exchange
WANO’s support does not end once a peer review team leaves a site.
Ongoing assistance is provided through our multi-faceted Technical Support and Exchange programme. Designed to help members address areas for improvement identified during peer reviews, this programme includes:
- Technical Support Missions, which see peer teams help members review difficult issues and identify potential solutions. The missions can cover everything from organisational effectiveness to fuel handling practices or outage management.
- Performance Indicators, which members can use to assess their plants against international standards and the rest of the industry. Indicators cover the full spectrum of operations, from forced loss rate and safety system performance, to collective radiation exposure and industrial safety accident rates.
- Guidelines and Good Practices, which are collected and housed on the WANO members’ web site to give operators methods and ideas to improve their own performance based on practices that have worked at other stations.
- Operator Exchanges, which enables staff from one plant to visit another one for an open and frank exchange of information. Several such visits have turned into longer-term relationships known as ‘twinnings’ which result in ongoing information exchanges, deeper co-operation and, in some cases, exchanges of technology and personnel.
Programme Highlights
- In 2011, WANO conducted 161 technical support missions.
- Each of the regional centres ensured missions were tailored to address areas for improvement that were identified during earlier peer reviews.
For full technical support and exchange highlights in 2011, please read page five of the 2011 Year End Highlights Report. Previous editions are also available on the publications page.