Two decades of WANO

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) has celebrated 20 years of activity. It was formed to help plant managers learn from one another in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident.

 

"The key to WANO's   strength has been    the focus on safety   through international   cooperation. Our single   aim, 'to maximise the   safety and reliability of   nuclear power plant   operation', remains as   relevant today as it was   20 years ago."      Laurent Stricker    WANO chair     "We remain keenly   conscious that WANO's   ongoing work, while   largely unpublicized,   represents nothing less   than a foundation stone   on which our entire   industry stands."    John Ritch    World Nuclear Association    director general, writing in a    letter to WANO

The organisation has regional centres in Atlanta, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo and a co-ordinating centre in London. Many WANO programs were modelled after the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) in the USA. Both organisations were industry responses to serious accidents - INPO after Three Mile Island in 1979 and WANO after Chernobyl in 1986 - and were formed with the determination that such preventable accidents should never happen again. WANO was formally established in Moscow on 15 May 1989.

 

WANO has members in over 30 countries, which together operate 447 nuclear plants involved in power generation as well as other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. The members share operational experience using an online database and contribute experts towards peer reviews of one another's plants. Technical courses and workshops are held each year and WANO conducts support missions to solve specific issues at its members facilities. All of these programs take place under a strict code of confidentiality that WANO considers essential to the open and honest information exchange it requires.