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The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) has celebrated 20 years of activity. It was formed to help plant managers learn from one another in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident.

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Ìý Ìý "The key to WANO's Ìý strength has beenÌý Ìý the focus on safety Ìý through international Ìý cooperation. Our single Ìý aim, 'to maximise the Ìý safety and reliability of Ìý nuclear power plant Ìý operation', remains as Ìý relevant today as it was Ìý 20 years ago." Ìý ÌýÌý Laurent Stricker ÌýÌý WANO chair Ìý Ìý "We remain keenly Ìý conscious that WANO's Ìý ongoing work, while Ìý largely unpublicized, Ìý represents nothing less Ìý than a foundation stone Ìý on which our entire Ìý industry stands." ÌýÌý John Ritch ÌýÌý ¶¶Òõpro ÌýÌý director general, writingÌýin a ÌýÌý letter toÌýWANO ÌýÌýÌý

The organisation has regional centres in Atlanta, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo and a co-ordinating centre in London. Many WANO programs were modelled after the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) in the USA. Both organisations were industry responses to serious accidents - INPO after Three Mile Island in 1979 and WANO after Chernobyl in 1986Ìý- and were formed with the determination that such preventable accidents should never happen again. WANO was formally established in Moscow on 15 May 1989.

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WANO has members in over 30 countries, which together operate 447 nuclear plants involved in power generation as well as other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. The members share operational experience using an online database and contribute experts towards peer reviews of one another's plants. Technical courses and workshops are held each year and WANO conducts support missions to solve specific issues at its members facilities. All of these programs take place under a strict code of confidentiality that WANO considers essential to the open and honest information exchange it requires.

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