Nuclear safety chief calls for reform

Nature : Laurent Stricker, chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), says that the nuclear industry has been overconfident and that it needs to rethink power plant safety in light of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. While WANO has incorporated into reactor operations the lessons learned from prior disasters, it has not yet done so with reactor design issues. Evaluation of the safety of any reactor design needs to take into account the environmental context, including population proximity, in which that reactor will operate. In addition, current safety reviews are often based on assuming one reactor accident at a site, rather than evaluating the risk of several reactor accidents occurring at once at the same site. Stricker has also proposed that if nuclear plant operators fail to make progress on safety issues that have been flagged as “areas for improvement,” WANO would be released from its obligations of confidentiality.