Passive Systems Performance and Reliability Workshop

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), in collaboration with the European project EASI-SMR, is pleased to announce the International Workshop on Passive Systems Performance and Reliability, to be held in Paris, France, from 30 March to 1 April 2026. This workshop is organised under the auspices of the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), by its Working Group on Risk Assessment (WGRISK) and Working Group on Analysis and Management of Accidents (WGAMA), in collaboration with the EASI-SMR project, co-funded by the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

Passive safety systems are central to the safety concepts of many advanced reactor designs, including Small modular reactors (SMRs) and micro-reactors. Despite their widespread use, consensus is lacking regarding modelling approaches, reliability assessment, and crediting methods in safety analyses. This workshop builds on the 2024 NEA Status Report on Reliability of Thermal-Hydraulic Passive Systems and supports the goals of the Ensuring Assessment of Safety Innovations for SMR (EASI-SMR project), which addresses key safety challenges in light-water SMRs through a structured R&D framework.