Member Support

Member support missions are carried out at the request of a member plant or utility. They provide a means for WANO members to assist each other in improving safety or reliability at an individual member’s plant. A team of peers is selected for a member support mission from WANO’s membership on the basis of their expertise in the applicable area. The team then visits the member plant to review issues either identified during the peer review, or by the plant itself, and then works closely with the member to close the gap to excellent performance.  

Recent missions have covered areas as diverse as stream analysis, work management, human performance, equipment reliability, radiation protection, operations, outage management and organisational effectiveness.

New Unit Assistance supports members and new organisations during the transition from a project phase - including construction and commissioning - to safe and reliable operation. It is important that new entrants and units join WANO before construction begins on the site, and as soon as the contract for main works on a new unit is signed. This will give enough time for the operator to ensure staff are fully trained and to ensure the entire operational function meets the necessary safety and reliability standards - in time to safely and effectively begin its operational life.

WANO principles and guidelines have been developed to help members achieve excellent performance in specific functional areas and also in important cross functional areas. They can be used to review existing programmes; to develop new programmes and corrective actions to tackle identified weaknesses and to monitor the adequacy of corporate policies and plant practices.

There are now almost thirty WANO principles and guidelines and over one hundred good practices available on the WANO members’ website. WANO good practices provide methods and ideas for improving plant performance and safety based on practices that have proven effective at other member stations. Presentation training supplements are also provided in parallel with WANO guidelines.

Member performance improvemet identifies plants where prioritised WANO and/or industry support is required.