EU Statements on Nuclear and Radiation Safety (Nuclear Safety Review 2022) as delivered at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on 7 March 2022
Mr Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The following countries align themselves with this statement: the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Iceland+, Liechtenstein+, Norway+, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and San Marino.
Mr Chair,
The unprovoked and unjustified military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has led to a most dangerous situation, also in terms of nuclear safety. A building at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhya, was in flames just a few days ago and only yesterday, a neutron source nuclear research facility was hit as a result of Russia’s shelling. If the fire had spread, or another building had been hit, this might have caused damage that could have led to a major accident, with potential severe consequences for human health and the environment. This is completely unacceptable and extremely worrying.
The EU welcomes the adoption, last week, of the Board’s resolution entitled safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine. This resolution sends yet another strong message to the Russian Federation that Moscow must immediate cease its military actions and fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence within its internationally recognized borders.
It is of utmost importance that the Ukrainian regulatory authority regains full control over all nuclear facilities and materials within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and that its staff and the operators’ staff have unhindered regular access to enable them to carry out their work without undue pressure and ensure the continuing safe operation of all nuclear sites. In this context, the EU fully supports the initiative of the IAEA Director General to agree on a set of principles with Ukraine and Russia to ensure the safety and security of the Ukrainian nuclear facilities. As pointed out by the IAEA Director General, the safety and security of nuclear sites and material in Ukraine must under no circumstances be endangered. In this regard, the EU recalls its statement at the Board last week, as well as the statements of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) of 27 February and 6 March. We stand firmly by Ukraine’s side and praise the Ukrainian nuclear regulator and staff at the nuclear facilities for their tireless work.
Mr Chair,
The EU and its Member States attach utmost importance to nuclear safety and its continuous improvement and strengthening. Complacency must be avoided. An effective safety culture and leadership in safety is to be promoted, timely implementation of reasonably practicable safety improvements is to be ensured to comply with high nuclear safety and radiation protection standards.
The EU continues to provide support for the improvement of nuclear safety worldwide, including through the implementation of EU-methodology stress tests and the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation (EINS), with a budget of € 300 million for 2021-2027.
We appreciate the Agency´s continued commitment to ensuring that Safety Standards remain fully applicable and up-to-date. Their robustness has also been reaffirmed in the recently concluded gap analysis study addressing challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Strengthening Safety Standards should be an ongoing task and remain a priority for the Agency, including a timely publication process.
We encourage all Member States, especially those that have not done so yet to request the Agency´s peer review and advisory services, timely implement the findings and publish mission reports for the sake of transparency. Given the significant number of peer reviews that had to be postponed due to pandemic, we emphasize the need for Agency to take appropriate measures to ensure the requested missions are carried out without further delays. The development of guidance on the conduct of IRRS and ARTEMIS missions in a back-to-back format is a welcome step.
The EU recognises IAEA’s ongoing work on the assessment of the Government of Japan’s plan to discharge Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) treated water and its first mission to Japan.
We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all relevant international nuclear safety conventions, in particular the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (JC) Following the decision to merge the 8th and 9th CNS review cycles and to postpone the 7th Review Meeting of the Joint Convention. We would like to underline the need for all Contracting Parties to continue to fufill their legal obligations and consistently address their nuclear safety issues despite the postponement. The growing number of Contracting Parties is a welcome trend. We encourage all others that have not yet done so to follow suit and call upon the Agency to continue outreach activities to promote universalisation and implementation of these instruments. Active participation is essential to ensure a robust peer review process. The EU is also ready to actively participate in the postponed 7th review meeting of the Joint Convention in 2022.
We thank the Agency for keeping robust regulatory infrastructure and decision-making processes a priority, including scientific knowledge, expertise and support provided by the Technical and Scientific Support Organisations (TSOs) and other relevant institutions. We request the Secretariat to continue to make this a priority.
Effective emergency preparedness and response (EPR) arrangements and capabilities should be a priority for every Member State. We encourage all Member States to make use of the Agency´s channels and existing operating arrangements to share notifications and monitoring data. We commend the Agency for continuing to implement an active exercise programme to test EPR at international level.
Development of decommissioning strategies and plans, including financing and work on final disposal solutions is essential and should be addressed early in any nuclear power or radiation technology programme.
We urge Member States to take appropriate steps to avoid imposing an undue burden on future generations by seeking and applying transparent, safe and long-term management solutions for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. We call upon Member States to implement these solutions in a timely and coherent manner and we stand ready to share our expertise and call upon the Agency to continue advancing discussions on deep geological disposals and related safety, security and safeguards aspects.
Regarding ageing management and long-term operation (LTO), we recall the need to systematically consider elements related to human resources policies and knowledge transfer between generations. We welcome and also encourage the Agency to continue providing assistance to member states, including via Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation (SALTO) missions.
The EU and its Member States support the effective application of the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and the two Supplementary Guidance and welcome the increasing number of political commitments. We regret that the revision of the related formalized information sharing process is pending since September 2020.
The EU acknowledges IAEA’s ongoing work on radioactivity in food and drinking water in non-emergency situations which would result in an increased understanding of the presence of radionuclides in them. We emphasize the importance of implementing this activity in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) while recognizing the ongoing work of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), thus avoiding different recommendations or interpretations of the resulting documents and building on the cooperative work carried out so far.
We appreciate the IAEA´s efforts focusing on the interface between nuclear safety and nuclear security. We expect the Agency to continue addressing the existing challenges in a coherent, coordinated and integrated manner. We are of the opinion that the publication of the joint International Nuclear Safety Group (INSAG) & Advisory Committee on Nuclear Security (AdSEC) should serve as an input for the upcoming guidance document to be issued by the Agency.
We continue to closely monitor developments related to the safety of advanced nuclear technologies, such as Small and Medium Sized or Modular Reactors (SMRs). We take note of the activities conducted so far under the Agency-wide platform on SMRs and we look forward to continuing to receive regular information from the Secretariat, including on the operation and regulatory issues.
With these comments, the EU takes note of the report.
Thank you, Mr Chair.
* Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania as well as potential Candidate Country Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
+ Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are members of the EFTA and of the European Economic Area.