Survey Analysis of Potential Nuclear Safety Research of Thailand for International Research Collaborative Reinforcement in the 2020s

Abstract

To achieve the long-term challenge of nuclear energy public acceptance in Thailand, nuclear safety research needed to be properly determined in both domestic and international directions, especially in the 2020s which was a period passing the Fukushima disaster over 10 years. Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) has studied nuclear safety research after the Fukushima accident to answer technical and social issues of nuclear power. An update of nuclear safety research from domestic experts and international surveys was needed in order to identify potential collaborative research to serve the goal of public acceptance reinforcement. The objective of this study was to survey, assess and rank the importance and knowledge level of nuclear safety research in Thailand among domestic experts in various fields. The survey was extended to collect the opinion of international participants of the ASEAN Network on Nuclear Power Safety Research (ASEAN NPSR) to analyze the similarity of the nuclear research interest for reinforcing the future collaborative project. As a result, the importance and knowledge level showed diverse important research topics with the priority of research scopes on human factor, novel reactor technologies, and risk assessment. According to the ASEAN NPSR survey, the nuclear safety research of severe accident, risk assessment, and novel reactor technologies were listed as potential collaborative projects. Also, the domestic and ASEAN NPSR survey results helped support the new collaborative research extension session in the annual ASEAN NPSR meeting to together discuss the potential nuclear safety research between members for the 2020s.