Interested contributors have until 31 May 2025 to submit synopses for the IAEA's first International Conference on Resilience of Nuclear Installations against External Events from a Safety Perspective.
The conference, which has a focus on climate change, will be held from 20-24 October 2025 at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
Nuclear installations are designed to withstand the impacts of natural phenomena, such as earthquakes and floods, using historical data and forecasting models. Climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of many of these phenomena, especially those of hydrological and meteorological nature.
"The conference will explore strategies and methodologies to assess and enhance the resilience of nuclear installations to external event scenarios, ensuring they can withstand and adapt to the increasing challenges posed, among others, by climate change," said Anna Bradford, Director of the IAEA Division of Nuclear Installation Safety. "By bringing together experts from around the world, we aim to foster collaboration and experience sharing to further improve the safety of nuclear installations worldwide, both new and existing."
Improving Modelling Approaches
This conference serves as a forum for the exchange of scientific and technical information on the basis of improved techniques and modelling approaches from the siting phases to design, operation and safety assessment.
The conference will provide a platform for enhanced networking opportunities among safety analysts, regulators, researchers and others engaged in the safety of nuclear installations. Exchanges will involve sharing experiences and discussing current and novel methods to evaluate the resilience and robustness of nuclear installations and radioactive waste disposal facilities against external events, particularly in the context of climate change. The discussions will also cover existing facilities, as well as those under design, licensing and construction.
Nuclear Resilience and Robustness
"The resilience of nuclear installations can be viewed as the ability of the installation to quickly return to its original safety state after the occurrence of a potentially damaging event such as an earthquake, hurricane, or aircraft crash," said Paolo Contri, Head of the IAEA Section of External Events Safety.
He added: "Resilience is coupled with the concept of robustness against external hazards, which encompasses the development of engineering solutions in siting, design and operation phases, that can support the response to extreme scenarios, but also to emerging challenges, or unknown threats, as well as planning, response and recovery strategies."
Contributors interested in submitting papers for the conference can find the topics of interest here, which includes areas such as the identification and analysis of external hazards, the consideration of uncertainties in hazard analyses and events resulting from combined hazards; and the impact of external hazards on nuclear installations and radioactive waste disposal facilities as well as the safety features of innovative new reactor designs and their contribution to resilience.
