An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of nuclear safety experts today completed an assessment of how ?EZ a.s., the Czech Republic's largest electricity company and the operator of the country's two nuclear power plants, has followed up on safety recommendations issued during an earlier review.

The Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) found that six of the nine issues noted in the earlier review, conducted in October 2013, had been fully addressed. Although noting satisfactory progress on the other three issues, the team recommended further action on them.

Follow-up missions are standard components of the OSART programme and are typically conducted within two years of the initial mission.

The 2013 review identified good corporate practices and made proposals for improvements in corporate processes relevant to the operational safety of nuclear power plants.

Actions taken to fully address issues identified in 2013 included:

• Extending independent oversight of all corporate functions that could affect nuclear safety;
• Improving the system for communicatingand sharing good practices;?and
• Improving the organisational succession plan for key positions.

The team recommended further work on the following issues identified in 2013:

• A more consistent management approach at all levels of the organisation should be ensured;
• Temporary changes to power plant equipment should be managed in a unified manner with ambitious targets;?and
• All design requirements for plant systems should be controlled in a unified manner.

?EZ was the first company to undergo a corporate OSART review, an addition to the IAEA OSART programme that focuses on the centralized functions of the corporate organization that affect all the operational safety aspects of a utility's nuclear power plants. The review was conducted at the invitation of the Czech government.

OSART missions aim to improve operational safety by objectively assessing safety performance using the IAEA's Safety Standards and proposing recommendations for improvement where appropriate.?Most OSART missions are conducted at nuclear power plants.

The follow-up review team comprised experts from Finland, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.

The team provided a draft of its report to ?EZ management. ?EZ and the Czech Republic Safety Authority will have an opportunity to make factual comments on the draft, which will be reviewed by the IAEA. The final report will be submitted to the Czech government within three months.

Background

General information about OSART missions can be found on the IAEA Website.

An OSART mission is designed as a review of programmes and activities essential to operational safety. It is not a regulatory inspection, nor is it a design review or a substitute for an exhaustive assessment of the plant's overall safety status.