International Reporting System for Operating Experience

The aim of the IRS is to increase the effectiveness in analysing and communicating operational safety experience.

The IRS is for use, within each participating country, by organizations professionally involved in the nuclear industry, such as: regulators, utilities, NPP staff, technical support, vendor companies (design firms, engineering contractors, manufacturers, etc.), research establishments or technical universities working in the nuclear field.

Timely feedback of operating experience provides information on events useful in preventing similar occurrences at other plants. Shared experience is valuable in determining actions to be taken to mitigate the potential consequences of discovered design or operating weaknesses should an event occur. The lessons learned may also be incorporated into new designs for future generations of nuclear power plants.

As of 2006, the reports are accessible through the Web Based Incident Reporting System (WB IRS). Only the IRS National Coordinator for each member country can decide access to the IRS database.

Quality LevelExplanation of Terms

• Authoritative: All information in the resource has been verified by authorities as indicated.
• Quality-checked: All information in the resource has been quality-checked as indicated.
• Not quality-checked: Although the information in the resource may come from peer-reviewed journals or other high-quality sources, it has not undergone subsequent quality checking before incorporation in the resource.

: Quality-checked by NS Professional staff
CompletenessExplanation of Terms

• Comprehensive:The resource includes all items in the category for which the resource was created.
• Selective: The resource includes only selected items in the category for which the resource was created, with the process or basis for the selection as indicated.

: Comprehensive
Update FrequencyExplanation of Terms

• Updated continually: A conscientious effort is made to add new information immediately and keep the resource up-to-date on a day-by-day basis.
• Updated periodically: The resource is updated on a schedule. Common values are monthly, quarterly, annually or biennially, but others are also used.
• Updated occasionally: The resource is updated now and then, but not on a schedule.
• Static: The resource is a one-off creation with no plans for updates, or a resource that was updated in the past but has now been frozen with no new input planned.

: Continually