With an increasing interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and their applications, a Technical Meeting on Considerations for the Back End of the Fuel Cycle of Small Modular Reactors was organized in September 2022 to facilitate the exchange of information and discussions to enable experts to collaboratively identify the opportunities and challenges faced at all stages needed for managing the spent fuels from different SMR technologies (e.g. storage, transportation, reprocessing and recycling, and disposal), the gaps in current infrastructure and the knowledge required to ensure an integrated approach to the overall spent fuel management strategy, as well as the potential ways to move forward in addressing them in the near, medium and long terms. This TECDOC presents the proceedings, session summaries and conclusions of the Technical Meeting, as well as the 27 extended abstract/full papers presented at the meeting.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) programme ‘Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments’ (MODARIA), which ran from 2012 to 2015 had the general aim of improving capabilities in the field of radiological and environmental dose assessment. Within MODARIA Working Group 3 ‘Application of models for assessing radiological impacts arising from NORM and radioactively contaminated legacy sites to support the management of remediation’, a software tool, NORMALYSA (NORM And LegacY Site Assessment), was developed. NORMALYSA can be used to simulate radionuclide transport in the environment from the source term (e.g. radioactively contaminated land) to the relevant receptors (e.g. residential areas, agricultural areas, water bodies) and to estimate resulting radiation exposure and corresponding doses to humans. This publication is the User Manual for NORMALYSA v.2.3 software, which also contains a description of the overall software architecture and the functionality of NORMALYSA.

This publication has been developed based on the results of the Technical Meeting on Advances in Post-Irradiation Examination Techniques for Power-Reactor Irradiated Fuels and Innovative Fuels held in July 2021. It explores the use of existing and new post-irradiation examination (PIE) techniques for the study of next-generation fuel types. Specifically, this publication provides an overall understanding of what important performance parameters are typically studied for each fuel type to properly assess its performance, and what are the relevant PIE techniques required for the analyses. Its intended audience comprises nuclear fuel designers, manufacturers, operators, regulators, academia and policy makers who work with the nuclear fuel community.

This publication highlights human and organizational lessons of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and discusses how to make owner/operating organizations of nuclear power plants more sustainably robust and resilient throughout all institutionalized systems. It also discusses how organizations can effectively manage the interfaces with stakeholders such as regulators, the public and within industry. The publication includes many practical examples of institutionalized initiatives that further enhance safety and improve overall nuclear power plant performance. This publication is intended for senior managers and leaders of nuclear power plant owner/operator organizations, and for other associated stakeholders such as manufacturers, vendors, contractors, and national and international industry organizations. Consideration and implementation of these noted initiatives and necessary attributes intend to help them develop strategies that support navigation through a rapidly changing business environment.

There are a number of IAEA Member States considering nuclear power programs and accordingly establishing regulatory infrastructure for the oversight of nuclear safety and security. The lessons identified from different IAEA expert missions, peer reviews, regulatory conferences, and training workshops have highlighted that most of the countries embarking on a nuclear power programme are facing various challenges in the development and implementation of regulatory oversight in line with the phases of implementation of nuclear power programmes specified in JAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-16 (Rev. 1), Establishing the Safety Infrastructure for a Nuclear Power Programme. The objective of this publication is to support the development and implementation of a structured regulatory oversight programme for the operation of a first nuclear power plant to ensure safety and security throughout its lifetime by using IAEA safety standards and security guidance documents. The TECDOC provides relevant information that is useful to embarking countries by considering the challenges and offering suggested approaches for regulatory oversight of a first nuclear power plant. This publication is intended for regulatory bodies, licensees of NPPs, technical support organizations and competent authorities responsible for oversight of nuclear safety and security of NPPs.

The suitable design and quality of systems, structures, and components important to safety is vital for the construction and operation of nuclear power plants. The IAEA has developed this publication to provide information on approaches to evaluating the suitability of commercial grade items for use in nuclear power plant safety systems. Nuclear power plants in long-term operation have greatly benefited from the use of commercial-grade products, while the near-term deployment of advanced reactor designs, including small modular reactors, is expected to leverage such products to a large extent. The intended audience ranges from nuclear power plant senior management to experts procuring and controlling products and services vital for safety.

The development and qualification of advanced cladding materials (including advanced zirconium cladding alloys, advanced steels, silicon carbide composite) and fuel materials (such as doped uranium dioxide, high density fuels) have made significant progress in the last decade, since the initiation of various national research and development and industry projects launched after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Written for operators and regulators of nuclear power plants and those involved in the development and qualification of advanced fuels, the aim of this publication is to review the status of development, qualification and licensing of some advanced fuel technologies for Water Cooled Reactors (WCRs); and to consider the applicability of the current IAEA Safety Requirements and Safety Guides in addressing the safety of advanced fuels in design and operation, identifying specific aspects that might evolve into recommendations in the future. The objective is primarily to identify and collect the status of knowledge in Member States on the applicability to advanced fuels of regulatory requirements, acceptance criteria and regulatory guidance documents that have been developed for the licensing of current nuclear fuel systems. It also aims to review the status of development, qualification, and licensing of some advanced fuel technologies for WCRs, with a focus on evolutionary as well as revolutionary technologies.

This technical document represents a comprehensive evaluation of publicly available information on front-end uranic inventories, while considering the approach of end users towards the reliability of their once-through supply chain. Country/regional detail is provided for Africa and the Middle East; Eurasia; Europe; North America; South America; South and East Asia. This approach, rather than simply a global view, better reflects the realities of local market supply and demand conditions in 2021 for nuclear fuel. The research can therefore help inform strategies for the assurance of nuclear fuel supply for the safe and secure operation of nuclear power plants. The publication is intended for all IAEA Member States with nuclear power, and IAEA Member States that are considering the development of nuclear power and are interested in security and assurance of nuclear fuel supply.

The IAEA facilitated the co-operation on research and development, including the development and validation of computer codes for design and safety analysis of NPPs, to bring together the experts from the Member States with water cooled reactor technologies experienced in developing and using the severe accident codes to further advance the state-of-knowledge on uncertainty propagation in severe accident simulation and modelling analyses, as well as increase the sophistication and competency of the practitioners in this field. This publication is one out of five in the TECDOC Series addressing specific reactor lines and it provides descriptions by contributing institutions of their utilized uncertainty and sensitivity methods for severe accidents analysis in large Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and in Integral PWR-type Small Modular Reactors. This publication is intended for nuclear engineers, vendors, researchers, code developers, university professors and university students, regulatory experts, and nuclear power plant designers and planners.

This publication sets out the Agenda ARCAL 2030, the title given to the Regional Strategic Profile for Latin America and the Caribbean for the period from 2022 to 2029. It will serve as a key programmatic reference for the formulation of regional technical cooperation projects. As with previous editions of the Regional Strategic Profile, the IAEA, the Regional Co-operation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARCAL) and representatives of Member States collaborated closely on the drafting of this new strategic programming framework. The new framework aims to address those of the region’s priority needs and problems where nuclear technology can make an effective and tangible contribution.

This report documents the outputs of the INPRO collaborative project "Comparative Evaluation of Nuclear Energy System Options" (CENESO). The overall objectives of CENESO were to apply the approach to comparative evaluation of system/scenario options developed in the previous INPRO collaborative project and published in IAEA Nuclear Energy Series NG-T-3.20. The current publication presents new case studies and elaborates upon previous ones to extend the Key Indicators for Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (KIND) approach to develop additional modules for enhancing the resolution among compared alternatives. The supplementary online files provide the latest version of the KIND Excel Tool (KIND-ET) and its extensions complete with user instructions.

This publication presents the results of an IAEA organized intercomparison exercise on codes used in the application of the. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) k0 method. NAA is the most common technique implemented in research reactors worldwide. It allows the determination of the elemental composition of samples weighing from micrograms to kilograms. The k0 method for NAA has greatly facilitated the implementation of NAA at new facilities. It allows for the determination of elemental mass fractions, together with their uncertainties, without the need for sample-matched reference materials. As a consequence, various software packages for the application of this method have been developed. In 2021, the IAEA initiated, an intercomparison exercise of k0 software packages, in which the software contributions to the uncertainty budget was determined. The developers of all known k0 software packages were invited to participate, and all but one of the invited packages were represented in the exercise, including the two widely available codes and three codes developed in particular institutes for their own purposes.