Compared to the development of the current Generation II fleet, the construction of the new Gen III/III+ reactors, and in the future, that of advanced reactors, rely on vendor companies that are active on the global market. These include North-American and European companies, and more recently, Korean, Russian and Chinese companies. Given the large investments that new projects represent, strong and long-term relationships between the supplier countries and the customer countries are a key factor of success, not only to address important issues such as financing and capacity building, but also to find an appropriate balance between global and local supply chains. Training, safety culture, and efficient oversight of supply chain actors are extremely important to guarantee the success of the projects. The IFNEC Nuclear Supplier and Customer Countries Engagement Group (NSCCEG) is currently addressing these topics.

Following the success of the IFNEC conference on Global Supply Chain and Localisation, Issues and Opportunities (November 2017), and the well-attended session on “Incorporating new market entrants into the supply chain: challenges and opportunities” at the V International Nuclear Power Plants Summit (INPPS), the INPPS organisers invited the NSCCEG to organise a session on supply chain at the VI INPPS in Istanbul, 5-6 March 2019. The INPPS event brings together supply chain companies from all over the world. The IFNEC-NSCCEG session, which followed a session dedicated to the presentation of the Rosatom supply chain organisation and opportunities (related to the Akkuyu project), was entitled “Challenges for a Robust and Secure Nuclear Supply Chain: Globalisation, Localisation, Oversight and Safety Culture”. The session, introduced by the IFNEC Technical Secretariat Head Dr. Henri Paillere, on behalf of the NSCCEG co-chairs, and moderated by Ms Elina Teplinsky from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a long-term friend of IFNEC, was very well attended (over 60 participants) in spite of being the last session of a very packed day. It brought together seven experts from China, the Czech Republic, Turkey and France, as well as from the World Nuclear Association, to discuss relationships between supplier countries and customer countries, best practices, as well as progress made in countries that are successfully constructing new nuclear power plants.

Programme

H. PAILLERE Introduction to IFNEC-NSCCEG

X. XUBO China Nuclear Power Supply Chain

R. HRUBY Czech Localization and Supply Chain

Y. CEYLAN Safety Culture in Nuclear Facilities

G. KASER International-Cooperation

F. ERCENGIZ How to build and control a supply chain