Abstract:
In the field of radiological and nuclear safety, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) of Argentina controls three research reactors and three critical assemblies, by means of evaluations, audits and inspections, in order to ensure the fulfilment of the requirements established in the Licenses, in the regulatory standards and in the mandatory documentation in general.
From the Nuclear Regulatory Authority’s point of view, within the general process of research reactors safety management, the management of operating experience plays an outstanding role.
In this aspect the ARN has established specific requirements in the Operation Licences in relation to the communication, evaluation, investigation of causes, and adoption of corrective measures, for the events that occurred.
From the experience collected in the analysis of the reports sent by the operators it has been verified some weaknesses in relation to the methodology of analysis of events and in the determination of the causal factors.
In such sense, with the purpose of establishing some help for the appraisers and to homogenize the treatment of the events, two reference guides were designed: a guide for the evaluation of events and the other with a grid of causal factors.
This paper describes the main aspects of the operating management system established for research reactors and critical assemblies in Argentina, and the guides developed for the event analysis and determination of causal factors.