EU Statement at the IAEA Board of Governors on Nuclear and Radiation Safety, Nuclear Safety Review 2025, delivered on 3 March 2025

Chair, 

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Moldova, San Marino and Ukraine align themselves with this statement.

We thank Director General Grossi, Deputy Director General Evrard and the IAEA Secretariat for issuing the Nuclear Safety Review 2025.

The EU and its Member States attach utmost priority to nuclear safety and its continuous strengthening. We stress the need to enhance emergency preparedness, to promote leadership and management for safety, including a strong safety culture, and to ensure independence and sufficient capacities of the regulatory authorities. It is important to implement adequate safety improvements and strive for the highest possible levels of nuclear safety and radiation protection, mindful of the IAEA safety standards. The EU remains a major donor for nuclear safety assistance worldwide, supporting countries to reach these goals.

We welcome the Secretariat’s continued efforts to systematically tackle safety aspects of ageing management, including physical ageing and technical obsolescence, and long-term operation. We encourage the IAEA to further enhance its assistance to Member States in capacity-building and knowledge management.

Chair,

It is now more than three years since Russia marched its troops into Ukraine’s Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants. Its war of aggression is endangering the safety of these sites and other Ukrainian nuclear facilities on a daily basis. We note with concern the frequent reports of drones flying in close proximity of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and attacks on its energy infrastructure. These have led to instability of the electrical grid and consequently pose further risk to the safety and security of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, demonstrating Russia’s complete disregard for nuclear safety. The most recent drone attack hitting the New Safe Confinement structure at Chornobyl again activated the emergency preparedness and response systems and underlines the persistent risks to nuclear safety. In this context, the IAEA’s work and its missions remain crucial to help Ukraine to maintain nuclear safety and security. We stress the importance of respecting the Director General’s seven indispensable pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security during an armed conflict and the five concrete principles. We also attach importance to continuing to review challenges in the application of nuclear safety standards in armed conflicts and would appreciate receiving information on progress. We will revert to Ukraine under item 9. 

Chair,

The EU welcomes the growing number of States joining the various conventions on nuclear safety, early notification and assistance and their commitments to the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources. We call upon all States to fully implement their provisions.

In view of the upcoming Eighth Review Meeting of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, we count on the full engagement of all Contracting Parties. We note with satisfaction the assistance the Secretariat has provided to some Contracting Parties to develop their first National Reports. Noting the increased use of radioactive material for peaceful purposes across economic areas, we call on all IAEA Member States to adhere to the Joint Convention. We also encourage the Secretariat to step up its outreach efforts. 

The EU and its Member States remain fully committed to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, including the Vienna Declaration. We stress the importance of taking into account the outcomes from the last Review Meeting in the preparations for the next Meeting in April 2026. This shall include the challenges identified in Country Review Reports and the actions agreed under Major Common Issues.

We recall the importance of the IAEA Peer Review Missions and welcome the strong interest and demand for ARTEMIS Missions also from non-EU countries. We commend the Secretariat for conducting a review of findings from the ARTEMIS missions. As a follow up, we look forward to receiving the first draft of a Safety Guide on national policies and strategies for the safety of radioactive waste and spent fuel management, decommissioning and remediation. 

We also welcome the continued IAEA involvement in the assessment of Fukushima water discharge.

Chair,

The EU remains committed to aiming at ensuring the highest possible levels of nuclear safety of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), mindful of the IAEA safety standards. We note that the Agency continues to receive requests for Site and External Events Design (SEED) review missions, expert missions and capacity building and training workshops, particularly from countries planning to embark on SMR deployment. 

We welcome the organisation in 2025 of the ConvEX-3 exercise, in collaboration with Romania. The exercise will strengthen global nuclear emergency preparedness including cooperation between the relevant IAEA and EU early notification and information exchange systems. Full participation and engagement of Member States in the exercise and its follow-up is crucial to achieving its objectives.

Chair,

We believe that the Agency’s Nuclear Safety Review could benefit from clearer priorities and a more analytical approach on global trends. These include, for example, challenges in nuclear safety expertise and knowledge management, implications of Artificial Intelligence across various safety areas, nuclear fusion, Nuclear Harmonisation and Standardization Initiative (NHSI) Phase 2 goals for 2025 and beyond, taking into consideration other initiatives such as the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs, review of the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) methodology and the implementation and finalisation of the long-term plan for safety standards. We also suggest to consider aligning the preparation of the Review with the IAEA Programme and Budget.

We will submit in due time our proposals in writing.

With these remarks, we take note of the Nuclear Safety Review 2025.

Thank you, Chair.