NEA Mandates and Structures


Expert Group on a Data and Information Management Strategy for the Safety Case (EGSSC)

Chair(s): Secretary:  Soufiane MEKKI
(soufiane.mekki@oecd-nea.org)
Member(s):All NEA member countries*
Russia (Suspended*)
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council.
Full participant(s): European Commission
Under the NEA Statute
Observer(s)(International Organisation): International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
Date of creation:10 September 2020
End of mandate:30 September 2022

Mandate (Document reference):

  • Mandate of the Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management 2020-2022 [NEA/RWM(2019)9/FINAL]
  • A New Initiative on Information, Data and Knowledge Management (IDKM) Terms of Reference [NEA/RWM(2019)8]
  • Summary record of the Kick-Off Meeting of the Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management (WP-IDKM) [NEA/RWM/IDKM/M(2020)1]
  • Sub-Group Reporting to the Parent Committee Document [NEA/CDLM/RWMC(2019)2]
  • Update of the Mandate of the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC) Following the Creation of the Committee on Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and Legacy Management [NEA/NE(2017)14]
  • Foundations and Guiding Principles for the Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory across Generations: a Focus on the Post-Closure Phase of Geological Repositories: A Collective Statement Of The NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee [NEA/RWM/RKM(2014)3/PROV]
  • The Information, Data and Knowledge Management Roadmap [forthcoming]
  • Mandate of the Expert Group on a Data and Information Management Strategy for the Safety Case (EGSSC) [NEA/RWM/IDKM(2020)2/FINAL]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract of Document NEA/RWM/IDKM(2020)2/FINAL

[...]

Scope

The EGSSC shall address activities that help RWMOs to describe and better understand the data and information they hold and process relating to radioactive waste and geological disposal in support of a safety case  (or more generally of a waste management case).

In all activities, the expert group shall aim to enable users to more insightfully capture data and information so that the links between different pieces of information are clear, unambiguous and can be understood in the future. Throughout all activities, consideration will be given to consistency with the Set of Essential Records (SER)1 with metadata introduced to identify such.

Mandate

The Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management (WP-IDKM) has decided to establish the third-level Expert Group on a Data and Information Management Strategy for the Safety Case (EGSSC). The EGSSC shall carry out the following key tasks and relevant supporting activities:

  1. Further developing NEA’s existing data and metadata libraries on radioactive waste packages, site description and repository engineering.
  2. Creating data and metadata libraries to describe the safety case, its production process and evolution, and supporting tools (for example datasets and associated modelling activities, which support safety assessments).
  3. Investigating approaches for organisations to move to digital safety cases, including considerations of the advantages and disadvantages of such, and how such safety cases should be structured and contextualised to enhance present day and future use by all stakeholders.

To support these primary activities, the expert group shall identify relevant secondary activities to be progressed.

Working methods

The mode of operation of the EGSSC is based upon plenary meetings and an ongoing, project-oriented working programme.

A Bureau consisting of a Chair and one or more Vice-Chairs shall co-ordinate and facilitate the work of the EGSSC. The Bureau shall normally meet once or twice a year, with one meeting normally held in conjunction with the annual EGSSC plenary meeting.

Communication within the EGSSC shall primarily take place through annual plenary meetings. The plenary meeting is devoted to:

  • the exchange of information on recent developments in the member countries;
  • in-depth discussions of current developments and topical issues, where additional specialists may also be invited;
  • the identification of main outcomes/insights to be reported to the WP-IDKM; and
  • the discussion and coordination of the working programme, including the evaluation of possible collaboration with other projects in and outside of the NEA, in particular with other expert groups of the WP-IDKM as well as the NEA Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) and its sub-groups.

The EGSSC shall report to the WP-IDKM at the annual meetings of the working party.

Additionally, the EGSSC shall: (i) identify resources (including funding) and schedules for its activities; and (ii) review the programme of work and its effectiveness.

In fulfilling its Mandate, the EGSSC will be supported by the staff of the NEA Division of Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning. 

Membership

The EGSSC is a task-oriented expert group that should be composed of a diverse range of experts in the field of IDKM in RWM, decommissioning and non-related fields from NEA member countries, e.g. engineers and scientists in RWMOs, decommissioning and other technical domains involved with data and information management, knowledge managers and social scientists involved with knowledge management on extended timescales (hundreds of years).

Interactions

The work of the EGSSC shall be complementary to that of the IAEA and the EC, and the group should co-operate with its relevant counterparts as well as provide relevant input to the activities of these institutions, as appropriate.

Through the RWMC and Secretariat, the EGSSC will co-operate with the NEA standing technical committees and their subsidiary bodies when relevant, in particular those of the Committee on Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and Legacy Management (CDLM) and the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC), to identify (i) interfaces between the groups and (ii) overlaps and common issues. It may also collaborate with the NEA Data Bank.

In particular, the EGSSC will take into account the following NEA publication:

  • Metadata in Radioactive Waste Management [NEA publication 7378]
  • Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory (RK&M) Across Generations: Compiling a Set of Essential Records for a Radioactive Waste Repository [NEA publication 7423]

Deliverables

The expert group will produce appropriate reports, presentations or workshops with the support of the Secretariat. 

 


[1] As described in the NEA publication “Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory (RK&M) Across Generations. Compiling a Set of Essential Records for a Radioactive Waste Repository” [NEA publication 7423].