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General Statement. AREVA welcomes this initiative aiming to facilitate the orderly access to peaceful nuclear energy by countries with no or little previous experience in this area. Some Additional Comments. Milestones Document NG-G-3.1 proceeds in the IAEA's typical way: very thorough and syste
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1. AREVA Views on Infrastructure Assessment Andrew Teller
Senior Reactor Marketing Advisor
AREVA
andrew.teller@areva.com
2. General Statement AREVA welcomes this initiative aiming to facilitate the orderly access to peaceful nuclear energy by countries with no or little previous experience in this area
3. Some Additional Comments Milestones Document NG-G-3.1 proceeds in the IAEA’s typical way: very thorough and systematic
AREVA remains at the disposal of prospective customers to provide information enabling them to progress to the status of knowledgeable customer
Many actions referred to in NG-G-3.1 are to be documented in a report
These report chart the roadmap leading to the status of knowledgeable nuclear operator (milestone 3)
Especially for phase 1, stating the problem in terms of deliverables can help the journey towards reaching phase3
4. Proposed deliverables of phase 1 Policy document explaining reasons for choosing nuclear energy as part of the country’s energy mix
Document(s)
identifying all the necessary actions to be undertaken by the candidate country to reach phase 3
quantifying the efforts required by these actions
confirming the country’s commitment to undertake the said actions and providing details on route to be followed
5. Desired status prior to answering an Invitation to Tender (phase 2) Signature of the International legal instruments governing nuclear activities (see list of Conventions in §5.1 of document NG-T-3.2)
Evidence of phase 1 having been achieved (see above-mentioned deliverables), including
Presence of a national, independent, Nuclear Safety Organization
Human resources development under way
Financial background to potential contract such that credit insurance can be obtained
6. The Particular Case of Export Control AREVA would expect the government of the importing country to institute a legislative framework requiring its companies to implement an Internal Compliance Programme (ICP)
This ICP implies for each company concerned:
Compiling a comprehensive set of policies and procedures for the staff in charge of international procurement
Nominating an Export Control Officer supervising the import operations of the company
Implementing a suitable education programme for its staff
Instituting internal audits (to be performed by a body independent from international procurement) to verify actual compliance with the policies and procedures adopted
7. Note on Human Resources Development Although the problem might be more acute for new entrants, having skilled staff in sufficient numbers is a concern for every country in the current context of the Nuclear Renaissance
New entrants must bear in mind that they will not need only Ph Ds in nuclear engineering:
workers skilled in mechanics, electricity, welding, etc. are also important and likely to be in short supply
8. Concluding remarks AREVA is happy to take the IAEA Milestones methodology as the basis for assessing the “nuclear-worthiness” of potential customers
AREVA would appreciate some form of confirmation by the IAEA, as a neutral organization mustering the necessary expertise, that a given country has made sufficient progress on the road to nuclear-worthiness
In this respect, self-assessment is considered as a tool for speeding up the acquisition of expertise by the candidate countries, not as evidence of expertise having been acquired
Self-assessment exercises and/or IAEA evaluations can highlight areas where faster progress is desirable
The concerned country can expedite the process through hiring the services of experts in the areas to be addressed