The 3^rd International Conference on NPP Life Management (PLIM) for Long Term Operation (LTO), jointly hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and American Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), was held in Salt Lake City from 14^th to 18^th May. 340 more representatives and observers from 31 member states and 3 international organizations participated in this five-yearly meeting. Alexander Bychkov, Deputy Director-General of IAEA attended this conference and made opening remark.

Ever since the success of the 2^nd International Conference on PLIM for LTO in Shanghai, 2007, the world nuclear community has experienced a path of revival, bloom to slowdown after Fukushima Accident. The Conference concluded and exchanged under such backgrounds the development ideas and research outcomes of planning, management, technology and co-operation in the field of NPP Life Management. It also looked ahead into the needs of nuclear power development, PLIM, life extension and so on after Fukushima Accidents, priority issues to resolved as well as solving ways.

President of SNERDI, Dr. Zheng Mingguang delivered keynote speech under the title of "Sustainable Development and Secure Operation of China’s Nuclear Industry". In his speech, Dr. Zheng elaborated on the general situation of the development of China’s nuclear power, especially its future direction after Fukushima Accident. He introduced the progress of AP1000 and CAP1400 in China and put forward his viewpoints and advice in PLIM, life extension and operation safety. Dr. Zheng described the tasks of PLIM at different stages of NPP life cycle including design, construction, commissioning and other pre-service stages. He pointed out that the life extension of NPP should be aimed for high security and low risk, and nuclear security concept and technologies should be continuously updated and improved according to new experience feedback, especially feedback from Fukushima, thus the improvement of nuclear power security could be realized. Dr. Zheng’s speech aroused heated discussion among participants.

On behalf of China, SNERDI joined IAEA PLIM Technical Working Group (TWG) from 2007. As a member of this TWG, Mr. Dou Yikang, expert of SNPTC and Deputy Chief Engineer of SNERDI, presided over panel discussion during the conference. He also made active endeavor to solicit papers from his Chinese peers and also promoted their participation in international communication of PLIM. 

During the meeting, Dr. Zheng met with Mr. Bychkov, and other senior representatives from DOE, NRC, Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, IMS and Doosan. They communicated about deepening bilateral cooperation.