International Reporting System Research Articles

An Institutional Perspective on the Application of the International Reporting System for Serous Fluid Effusions

An Institutional Perspective on the Application of the International Reporting System for Serous Fluid Effusions

An Institutional Perspective on the Application of the International Reporting System for Serous Fluid Effusions

An Institutional Perspective on the Application of the International Reporting System for Serous Fluid Effusions

Insights from the analysis of flooding-related international operating experience at NPPs

The structured review of operating experience provides useful insights for improved operation and regulation. This paper presents insights and the related statistical analysis from the topical study of flooding-related international operating experience during the last 20 years. The study is the result of the European Clearinghouse activity and covers four databases: French, German, US Licensee Events Reports and the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System (IRS).The methodology applied includes both a qualitative and a quantitative assessment: screening, review and statistical analysis. All relevant events (263) are characterised, and a selection of these (109) are further analysed to derive insights. The paper presents 16 generic insights synthesised from 94 specific insights. The insights are grouped based on the systems causing the events and on the purpose for corrective actions.The statistical analysis shows the contribution, the trend and the correlation between the events databases and the insights. The US and IRS events contribute the most to insights, with important contributions from two other databases. A slightly increasing linear trend of the yearly number of events is missing only for the German events. The correlation analysis for the number of events contributing to the insights shows a noticeable correlation between the US and IRS databases’ and the BWR and PWR reactor type events.The analysis of the relative contribution of the events to the insights shows a statistically significantly smaller or larger contribution to several insights from different databases and reactor types. This could be the basis for a decision about the relevance and the applicability of some insights in certain countries and to specific reactor types.The fact that the most important events contributing to the insights are well distributed over the entire 20 years period shows their continuous relevance. Equally, the fact that all four databases and reactor types contribute sufficiently to the most relevant events shows that the insights are similarly relevant for all of them. The insights from this analysis seem internationally relevant recommendations and they could help the licensees and regulatory authorities to prevent flooding events from occurring, to protect safety systems from flood and to improve flooding protection and mitigation.

Immunochemistry in the work-up of mesothelioma and its differential diagnosis and mimickers.

The differential diagnosis in cellular effusions with cytological atypia often includes malignant mesothelioma (MM), reactive mesothelial proliferation, and malignancies of metastatic origin, particularly carcinomas. The International Reporting System for Serous Fluid recently established guidelines for reporting MM. In conjunction with the cytomorphologic evaluation, the role of immunochemistry (IC) was emphasized as a very useful tool in the workup of serous fluids, especially with the availability of novel markers. Utilizing a panel of markers, IC allows the characterization of the cells, whether mesothelial or not, and when mesothelial origin is established, IC can frequently assist in delineating its benign or malignant nature. IC can also confirm metastatic disease, allowing the identification of the primary origin in most cases. This review summarizes the current status of IC and its role in the diagnosis of MM and its differential diagnosis in serous fluids.

Nuclear Power Plants event classification based on International Reporting System (IRS)

The exchange of information between several business activities can lead to an increase in productivity and quality. In nuclear area, besides economic benefits, the operating experience exchanged can increase of the safety level of nuclear installations. Thus, it´s necessary to evaluate frequently operational occurrences from different countries and companies to learn with their lessons learned to prevent a recurrent events or unexpected consequences. Because this, several methodologies are recommended to investigate events in an adequate level of depth and perform reports based on local requirements. Generally, these reports contain plant conditions before and after an event occurs (operation mode, operation limits and condition, date and time, nuclear and electrical power) and their information (failure discovery methods, impact to the safety, classification from INES and national regulation scale, similar events, relation to human factors, activation of emergency plan, recommended actions, root cause and causal factors). To allow the exchange of experience the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) maintain an Incident Reporting System (IRS) that permits interaction of several member states. In this system, a local coordinator collects information of the most relevant operating events and performs an evaluation of them based on IRS Guideline presented in an annual meeting. This paper evaluates a set of approximately four hundred events reported in IRS between 2014 and 2018. This evaluation has the objective of identify the most recurrent event root causes, operation mode and the effectiveness of corrective actions in course in the nuclear industry.

Impact of Non-Financial Information on Sustainable Reporting of Organisations’ Performance: Case Study on the Companies Listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange

The influences resulted from the strategy of sustainable development of a country represents a challenge for both the research and all those interested. This paper researches how the non-financial information is relevant in reflecting the sustainability of Romanian economic entities’ performances. In this context, reference is made to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and to the extent that the economic entities listed at the stock exchange draft sustainable reports in compliance with the international reporting requirements. The hypotheses formulated are related to the specific characteristics of the economic entities listed on the BVB. The research was done on a sample consisting of all economic entities contained by the International Reporting System of Issuers (IRIS) platform of the BVB, the sustainable reporting was analysed through the Pearson correlation coefficient and the ANOVA test. Following the research, results were obtained that made it possible to validate/invalidate the hypotheses. One of the specific characteristics that has been noted refers to the size of the economic entity; this has been shown to influence the extent to which the sustainable report drafted complies with the requirements of the international reporting frame.

Analysis of loss of offsite power events reported in nuclear power plants

This paper presents the results of analysis of the loss of offsite power events (LOOP) in four databases of operational events. The screened databases include: the Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) databases, the IAEA International Reporting System for Operating Experience (IRS) and the U.S. Licensee Event Reports (LER).In total 228 relevant loss of offsite power events were identified in the IRSN database, 190 in the GRS database, 120 in U.S. LER and 52 in IRS database. Identified events were classified in predefined categories.Obtained results show that the largest percentage of LOOP events is registered during On power operational mode and lasted for two minutes or more. The plant centered events is the main contributor to LOOP events identified in IRSN, GRS and IAEA IRS database. The switchyard centered events are the main contributor in events registered in the NRC LER database. The main type of failed equipment is switchyard failures in IRSN and IAEA IRS, main or secondary lines in NRC LER and busbar failures in GRS database.The dominant root cause for the LOOP events are human failures during test, inspection and maintenance followed by human failures due to the insufficient or wrong procedures. The largest number of LOOP events resulted in reactor trip followed by EDG start.The actions that can result in reduction of the number of LOOP events and minimize consequences on plant safety are identified and presented.

Investigating the recurrence of meteorological hazards

The external hazards constitute a significant source of challenges for the safe operation of a NPP. An overview of the available operating experience is presented in this paper, in order to provide a better picture about the recurrence of meteorological hazards and their impact on the safety of nuclear installations. The IAEA International Reporting System was used as a reference database in the analysis.The meteorological related events identified in the selected time window were analyzed in detail, and the contributions of each external hazard that have induced the meteorological related events, together with the lessons learnt are presented and discussed. The obtained results and the conclusions regarding the occurrence of extreme meteorological hazards, together with the distribution of recurrent events for EU and non-EU areas are highlighted.

Statistical Analysis of Loss of Offsite Power Events

This paper presents the results of the statistical analysis of the loss of offsite power events (LOOP) registered in four reviewed databases. The reviewed databases include the IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire) SAPIDE database and the GRS (Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit mbH) VERA database reviewed over the period from 1992 to 2011. The US NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Licensee Event Reports (LERs) database and the IAEA International Reporting System (IRS) database were screened for relevant events registered over the period from 1990 to 2013. The number of LOOP events in each year in the analysed period and mode of operation are assessed during the screening. The LOOP frequencies obtained for the French and German nuclear power plants (NPPs) during critical operation are of the same order of magnitude with the plant related events as a dominant contributor. A frequency of one LOOP event per shutdown year is obtained for German NPPs in shutdown mode of operation. For the US NPPs, the obtained LOOP frequency for critical and shutdown mode is comparable to the one assessed in NUREG/CR-6890. Decreasing trend is obtained for the LOOP events registered in three databases (IRSN, GRS, and NRC).

Events related to emergency diesel generators in the nuclear industry: Analysis of lessons learned from the operating experience

This study focuses on specific operating experience related to emergency diesel generators (EDG) at nuclear power plants. The study aims at analysing operating experience for the past twenty years and identifying events that involved failures of EDG or its supporting systems.The selected operating experience was analysed in order to identify type of failures, attributes that contributed to the failure, failure modes, discuss risk relevance, summarize important lessons learned and provide recommendations. For the purpose of this study EDG failure is defined as EDG fail to function on demand (i.e. fail to start, fail to run) or during testing, or an unavailability of an EDG, except of unavailability due to regular maintenance.The Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) databases were screened to select all the events between 1990 and 2010 related to this topic. Besides IRSN and GRS operating experience, the operating experience contained in the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System for Operating Experience as well as the U.S. Licensee Event Reports were also analysed.The selected events were analysed in depth. Causes, root causes, contributing factors, consequences and lessons learned were determined. The events were classified into categories in order to establish main conclusions on the topic. A trend analysis was performed wherever possible, by assigning the reported events into different categories regarding chronology of occurrence, failure types, components involved, failure mode, failure causes, failure detection, etc. Subsequently, generic recommendations related with the analysed EDG failures were compiled.The focus of this paper is on the lessons learned from the analysed operating experience as well as on designating generic recommendations for the specific EDG-related issues encountered rather than presenting selected statistical results.

Statistical analysis of events related to emergency diesel generators failures in the nuclear industry

This paper is aimed at studying the operating experience related to emergency diesel generators (EDGs) events at nuclear power plants collected from the past 20 years. Events related to EDGs failures and/or unavailability as well as all the supporting equipment are in the focus of the analysis.The selected operating experience was analyzed in detail in order to identify the type of failures, attributes that contributed to the failure, failure modes potential or real, discuss risk relevance, summarize important lessons learned, and provide recommendations. The study in this particular paper is tightly related to the performing of statistical analysis of the operating experience. For the purpose of this study EDG failure is defined as EDG failure to function on demand (i.e. fail to start, fail to run) or during testing, or an unavailability of an EDG, except of unavailability due to regular maintenance.The Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) databases as well as the operating experience contained in the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System for Operating Experience and the U.S. Licensee Event Reports were screened.The screening methodology applied for each of the four different databases is presented. Further on, analysis aimed at delineating the causes, root causes, contributing factors and consequences are performed.A statistical analysis was performed related to the chronology of events, types of failures, the operational circumstances of detection of the failure and the affected components/subsystems.The conclusions and results of the statistical analysis are discussed. The main findings concerning the testing, maintenance, safety consequences, determining eventual chronological trend, detection of failures are summarized.

Ageing related events at nuclear power plants

This paper presents main results of a comprehensive study performed by the European Clearinghouse on Operating Experience Feedback of NPP with the support of IRSN (Institut de S?reté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection) and GRS (Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsi-cherheit mbH). Physical ageing mechanisms of structure, systems and components that eventually lead to ageing related systems and components failures at nuclear power plants were the main focus of this study. The analysis of ageing related events involved operating experience reported by NPP operators in France, Germany, USA and to the IAEA/NEA International Reporting system, on operating experience for the past 20 years (i.e. 1990-2009). A list of ageing related events was populated. Each ageing related event contained in the list was analyzed and results of analysis were summarized for each commodity group for which the ageing degradation appeared to be a dominant contributor or direct cause. The most common degradation mechanisms/ageing effects for each specific component/commodity group, their risk significance and consequences to the plant performance are described. This paper provides insights into ageing related operating experience as well as recommendations to deal with the physical ageing of nuclear power plant SSC important to safety.

Nuclear power plant commissioning experience

In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of the events related to the commissioning of new nuclear power plants and reported to the IAEA International Reporting System database. These results are extracted from a study performed by the European Clearinghouse on Nuclear Power Plant Operational Feedback about the events related to the construction, the manufacturing and the commissioning of new nuclear power plants. After the initial screening of the database, we have analysed in detail 34 events in order to highlight the lessons learned specific to different components and to raise the general recommendations related to the commissioning. This paper summarizes the main lessons learned and the main recommendations concerning the commissioning-related events. These recommendations concern mainly the time of the testing, the scope of the tests, the documentation of the tests, the test acceptance criteria, the systems reconfiguration after commissioning tests and the management of the temporary devices.