Alongside Cyp van Rijn and Hans Wingender, Henri was instrumental in the merging of EUReDATA and ESRRDA which took effect in 1992, and it is testament to his commitment to the association that Henri has retained the same level of enthusiasm that marked his days as the first vice chairman of ESReDA.

It was Henri who organised and hosted the first ESReDA seminar in the beautiful city of Chamonix, which was devoted to equipment ageing and maintenance. This was to be the first in a series of seminars on safety and maintenance, organised by Henri and his Electricité de France EDF colleagues in France.

Other included, Operational Safety (Lyon 1993), Maintenance and System Effectiveness (Chamonix 1994), Rotating and Machinery and Maintenance (Chamonix 1996), and Industrial Application of Structural Reliability, which was organized by a new ESReDA project group launched by Henri in 1997.

To mark the 30th birthday of EUReDATA/ESReDA, a Lifetime Management of Structures seminar was held in Paris in 2003. Recalls Henri: “I don’t know if it was the Paris charm or the French food and wine at the gala dinner, but I was elected Honorary Member of ESReDA”.

“When I retired from EDF at the end of 1990 decade,” explains Henri, “I took the charge of treasurer of ESReDA until now, staying on at the ESReDA BoD where I am now the oldest director at the age of 70.”

The EDF Years

Reflecting on the early stages of his career at EDF, Henri recalls how he initially worked in the Thermal Plant Operation Division, where was involved in the start up and tests of fossil plants. It was when the first oil chock occurred in 1973, that resulted in Henri being detached to the Research and Development Division .

“Along with many of my young engineer colleagues I was oriented to the nuclear field after a nuclear energy formation at the CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique),” says Henri. “At first, I was responsible for the organisation and the record of the safety and reliability data collection in all French PWR (Pressurized Water Reactors) plants (34 x 900 MW and 20 x 1300 MW), as well as developing the necessary analysis tools.

“The data collected over those 20 years, was used to feed the international industry EIReDA data bank, and to feed the first Probabilitic Safety Assessment (PSA) of French nuclear plants published on 1990. In parallel, I was involved in the start up and tests of 12 nuclear PWR units, from Fessenheim in 1977 to Paluel in 1986, through to the start up of the first French Fast Breeder Reactor SuperPhenix. It was a very fruitful field experience.

“At the time, EDF was concerned about the number of nuclear plants which had to built to meet electricity demand in France. As we had no experience of the reliability factors for our future plants, we looked at existing operating plants in the US, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Sweden, and created a foreign plants availability databank.

The creation of the database took around two years, and although the management was satisfied with the report, which has allowed to determine the number of nuclear plants to built in France, I suggested that we should create a safety database in our own plant. After long discussions this proposal was finally accepted by the EDF management

Note that the period between 1973 and 1986 was an extremely dynamic and unique time in France. We were building and starting five nuclear plants every year, and all of Europe, the US and Japan worked with us. I participated in several international working commissions at CCE Brussels (Safety of Fast breeder) Four Party Agreement (Pittsburgh, Westinghouse, CEA, Framatome (now AREVA), EDF), Ispra Joint Research Centre (European Component Event Data Bank).

“After 10 years of data collection by all EDF operating PWR plants, I participated in two significant EDF projects - the computation of the risk of reactor core fusion ( PSA, Probabilistic Safety Assessment), and the development of the Reliability Centred Maintenance project (RCM), optimizing maintenance tasks for safety, availability and costs.

“For this last topic and for the preliminary design study of the European Pressurized Reactor, (EPR), which is currently under construction in Finland and in Flammanville in France, it was necessary to use field data and expert judgement.

“In 1989 with the help of Carlo Clarotti, Mathematics professor in Roma University, and ENEA, Italy, we launched inside EDF, an antenna charged to develop and use Bayesian theory (mixing of field recorded data with expert’s judgement) and apply it for the design of new plant (EPR), ageing analyses and maintenance of actual operating plant, and plant life extension of old units.”

A first book on the industrial application of this new (and complex) methodology was published in 1992 in France (Editions Eyrolles), and Henri recently published a synthesis and the state of the art of Bayesian use in industrial risk in 2009 (Edition Lavoisier, Science du Risque et du Danger SRD), as well as developing general and practical frequential and Bayesian software: Rexpert calculating reliability parameters for safety and availability, eliciting and modelling expertise, and calculating ageing (or burn in) of equipments for repairable and not repairable components and systems.

Henri chaired the first ESReDA project group on Safety and Reliability Data, as well as editing the first ESReDA guidebook on this subject, and is one of three co-authors of the world reference book EIReDA , which not only sold all over Europe, but also worldwide.

Past, present, future

For the past 20 years, Henri has been delivering professional courses on nuclear formation in universities (Universités d’Orléans, de Bourges), schools of engineers (Arts et Métiers Paris, Ecole Centrale de Paris, Istia école d’ingénieurs d’Angers, ENSTA (Ecole Nationale des Sciences et Techniques Avancées), and INSTN (Institut des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires, CEA Saclay et Cadarache).

Henri believes that the numerous and lengthy collaborations between different countries such as all Europe, or USA were something of a shift in culture for France. “Generally speaking, it was not in our spirit in France, to share knowledge to such an extent, but exchanging information with other countries has proved extremely fruitful.

“We have tried to speak the same language and arrive at creating a data bank that takes into account all the subtle differences between the various countries, the different thinking, the different cultures of people, so that there is almost the same reliability of quality control across them all.”

As for the future, Henri would like to see an increase in both funding and membership of ESReDA. “We have two seminars every year which allow members to share expertise and look at other ways of thinking, as well as meeting other people who are working in the same field.

“Although ESReDA is a very dynamic association, from my point of view as treasuerer, future concerns are always about money, even if ESReDA money status is very sound. Whilst we are grateful for existing funding, it is always important to receive collaboration and support from the country where the seminar is being organised.

“It is also my ambition to raise our profile and attract more members. I am always lobbying for ESReDA in France and proud to see that the French chapter is the largest inside the European association. I would also like to see us transferring our knowledge of safety in nuclear plants to countries where risky companies still exist.”

While Henri wants to see an increase in membership, he also cautions that when an association becomes too big, there is a danger of it losing its soul. “At the moment, because of the size of the association, we are all obliged to do something. Small is not only beautiful, it is also productive. Large companies make large things, but are often an inhuman desert, while small companies can make small, yet interesting and human things.”

Henri divides his time between Paris in a suburb close to Orly Airport, and close to Chamonix in the Alps. In spite of his significant and on-going contribution to ESraDA, Henri still finds the time to enjoy the company of his eight grandchildren, as well jogging, swimming and ski-ing.

Henri has participated in the redaction of many articles in several ESReDA books. He also publishes theoretical and technical books in French in Eyrolles, SFER, Docaret, Hermès, CUP, IMdR, Lavoisier scientific collections

 Books published between 1992 to 2009:

Procaccia H., Clarotti C., Piepszownik L., Fiabilité des Equipements et Théorie de la Décision  Statistique Fréquentielle et Bayésienne, Collection de la Direction des Etudes et Recherches d’EDF, 81, Eyrolles, 1992.

Lannoy A., Procaccia H., Méthodes Avancées de Traitement et d’Analyse de Bases de Données de Retour d’Expérience, Collection de la Direction des Etudes et Recherches de EDF, 86, Eyrolles, 1994.

ESReDA, Series on Statistics N°2, Guidebook on the Effective Use of Safety and Reliability Data, éditeur Henri Procaccia, SFER, 1995.

Procaccia H., Morilhat P., Fiabilité des Structures des Installations Industrielles – Théorie et Application de la Mécanique Probabiliste, Eyrolles, 94, 1996.

Procaccia H., Aufort P., EIReDA, European Industry Reliability Data-Industrial Plants,volume 3, Docaret, Paris,1996.

Procaccia H., Arsenis S., Aufort P., EIReDA, 1300 Mwe Nuclear Installations and Industrial Plants,volume 4, Docaret, Paris,1997.

EIReDA (European Industry Reliability Data) 1998, Procaccia H., Arsenis S., Aufort P., Crete university Press, EDF, Joint Research Centre Ispra, European Commission, 1998.

Procaccia H., Fondements et Applications des Approches Fréquentielles et Bayésiennes dans le domaine de la Sûreté de Fonctionnement, Institut de Sûreté de Fonctionnement, ISdF, 1998.

ESReDA, Series on Statistics N°4, Handbook on Quality of Reliability Data, éditeur Lars Pettersson, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), 1999.

ESReDA, Series on Statistics N°5, Handbook on Maintenance Management, éditeur Lars Pettersson, Det Norske Veritas (DNV),  2001.

Henri Procaccia et Marie-Christine Suhner, Démarche Bayésienne et Application à la Sûreté de Fonctionnement, Hermès-Sciences – Lavoisier, 2003.

ESReDA Series, Decision Analysis for Reliability Assessment ; éditeurs : Tim Bedford, Palle Christensen et Henri Procaccia, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), 2004.

A.Lannoy, H.Procaccia, Evaluation et Maîtrise du Vieillissement Industriel, Lavoisier Tec & Doc, 2005.

Lannoy A , Procaccia H, Evaluation de la fiabilité prévisionnelle. Outil décisionnel pour la conception et le cycle de vie d’un bien industriel, (Lavoisier, Tec & Doc), 2006.

Procaccia H., Fondements et applications des approches fréquentielles et bayésiennes. Applications aux risques industriels, Institut de Sûreté de Fonctionnement, réédition et actualisation de l’ouvrage ISdF 1998, Lavoisier, 2007.

 Procaccia H., Introduction à l’analyse probabiliste des risques industriels, Lavoisier, Collection Science du Risque et du Danger, SRD, 2009