IAEA Team Concludes Site And External Events Design Review For El Salvador’s First Nuclear Power Plant

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has concluded a six-day safety review of El Salvador’s site selection process for its first nuclear power plant (NPP).

The Central American country is embarking on a nuclear power program to diversify its energy mix and provide a clean and reliable source of energy to support economic development.

The Site and External Events Design Review Service (SEED) mission, which took place from May 26 to 31, reviewed El Salvador’s adherence to IAEA guidance on the site selection process.

The SEED mission was carried out at the request of the Government of El Salvador and hosted by the Organization for the Implementation of the Nuclear Energy Program in El Salvador (OIPEN) and the Executive Hydroelectric Commission of the Lempa River (CEL).

The SEED review team comprised three experts from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as two IAEA staff members. They reviewed the site selection report, together with the siting process, siting criteria, and data collection process for siting activities.

The team visited and observed the candidate sites located in Chalatenango (about 40 kilometers northeast of the capital San Salvador) and San Vicente (about 70 kilometers east of San Salvador).

In addition to the SEED review mission, the IAEA provided a SEED Capacity Building Workshop to support site evaluation.

“We confirmed that CEL independently developed exclusion criteria for site screening and effectively narrowed down the areas of the country with the lowest external hazard risks. This can be considered a good practice for minimizing risks,” said mission team leader Kazuyuki Nagasawa, Senior Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA.

The team provided recommendations to improve the quality and optimize the site selection process, aiming to select the most favorable site.

OIPEN and CEL will continue to receive technical support from the IAEA as they advance from the site selection stage to the subsequent site characterization stage.

The final SEED mission report will be delivered to the Government of El Salvador within three months.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com