ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

Foreword and Objective: In May 2018 the Conference Best Estimate Modelling Plus Uncertainties in Safety Analyses (BEPU 2018) was held in Lucca Italy. The conference demonstrated that since the last similar conference held in 2004, significant development occurred in BEPU area; however, the work was mainly concentrated on uncertainty evaluation methodologies rather than on the whole BEPU process. The BEPU2018 conference demonstrated that:

• BEPU applications in licensing are limited and their increase is foreseen to be slow;
• There is a need for comprehensive guidelines for use of BEPU technologies, and the availability of mature tools was questioned;
• BEPU technology implies, among other things PSA, neutron physics and fuel performance connections;
• Consistency in all steps of BEPU needs to be ensured, however it was identified that there is a need to reduce shortcuts in BEPU applications and to focus on exploitation of the full BEPU process;
  
• Experimental data is central to the BEPU processes and methodologies; thus the use the available of experimental data in an efficient and consistent way is required; in any deterministic safety analysis. 
  
• BEPU is at first a methodology that increases the knowledge and understanding of uncertainties and biases embedded in any deterministic safety analysis; 
  
• Another factor stressing the importance of realistic simulations and the capability to estimate their uncertainty is the recent rapid development of new nuclear system designs particularly the SMRs and MRs. The potential wide application of these systems will require the best possible analytical methods to demonstrate their safety and elimination of any potential early or large radioactive releases; 
  
• BEPU technology appears to be "distant" from the development/deployment of new reactors including SMR and Gen IV. 
  

Expected Outcome: Considering these outcomes of the BEPU 2018 conference, and recent nuclear energy systems development, there is a need to revisit the identified problems in relatively short time frame and to address the capabilities and robustness of realistic simulations with evaluation of uncertainties.

Structure of the conference: The BEPU2024 Conference is planned to be organized in two main Tracks devoted to Industrial Applications and Licensing (Track-1) and to Research and Development (Track-2). Plenary Sessions, Regular Sessions, and Panel Discussions Sessions to promote intensive interactions among all conference participants. Poster and student sessions are also  envisioned.