In some countries, there is a growing demand for information about NPP performance from the executives, public and media. Such a demand has to be responded to and the information provided need to be meaningful and understandable. Moreover, new regulatory practices such as moving towards risk informed regulation emphasise the role of quantitative information and indicators. Consequently, there may be a need for several levels of SPIs providing information for different stakeholders and decision situations. The OECD/NEA Committees on Nuclear regulatory Activities (CNRA) and Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) have addressed the issue by establishing a Joint Task Group on Safety Performance Indicators.
This Group organised in cooperation with CSNI a workshop on "Regulatory Uses of Safety Performance Indicators", held in Granada on 12 - 14 May 2004. The workshop was attended by 53 experts from the regulators, industry and technical support organizations in 18 countries (Appendix 1). Three international organisations were represented: IAEA, WANO and NEA.
The workshop programme consisted of plenary and technical sessions (Appendix 2). The plenary session topics were: international activities and indicators for regulatory effectiveness and efficiency. Technical sessions were organised around: regulatory policies related to the use of safety performance indicator systems; regulatory experience and lessons learnt about the use of safety performance indicators; indicators for safety management and safety culture; developments in risk informed safety performance indicators; and licensee safety performance indicator systems and their utilisation by the regulatory bodies. These sessions reflect the main themes set for the workshop by the organising committee (Appendix 3) in the call for papers. Together, 22 papers were presented and 5 panel discussions organised.