CSNI meeting participants.
The Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) held their latest bi-annual meetings together in June in an effort to further increase co-ordination across their activities.
The 75th and 51rst meetings of the CSNI and CNRA, respectively, were held in the south of France on 4-7 June 2024. More than 70 delegates from 20 countries gathered for 4 days to discuss current activities and best practices in the safety assessment and regulation of nuclear facilities. They welcomed Tomoya Ichimura from Japan as the new chair of the CNRA and thanked Vesselina Ranguelova for her commitment as the NEA Technical Secretariat of the CSNI, wishing her a rewarding future after a long career dedicated to nuclear safety.
Site visits at the IRSN.
Tours of the IRSN (Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety) and the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) sites in Cadarache included visits to the IRSN’s fire testing facilities, thermal hydraulics laboratories and concrete testing sites, as well as a presentation of the ongoing construction of the JHR Material Test Reactor.
The CNRA participants had a productive working session preparing a position paper on the COP28 declaration on tripling nuclear capacity by 2050 and other influencing factors related to regulatory authorities.
The meetings addressed several topics of interest to both committees, enabling enhanced co-operation:
- The upcoming CSNI “NEA High Level Nuclear Safety Research Roadmap" was presented to the CNRA, establishing a liaison for the finalisation of the roadmap. This document will guide research on the safety needed for the long-term operation of existing nuclear power plants and the safety demonstration of upcoming small modular reactors.
- Following CNRA delegates’ endorsement of the NEA proposal to survey CNRA participating countries using a questionnaire on competency management, CSNI participants also agreed to participate in the study by including supporting technical organisations.
- During the CNRA meeting, the presentation of CSNI activities caught the interest of regulators for CSNI activities including the Component Operational Experience, Degradation and Ageing Programme (CODAP) joint project and the WGAMA CSNI Code Validation Matrix.
Finally, both committees approved technical reports and new activities including their respective 2025-2026 programmes of work.
CNRA meeting participants.
More information is available on the CSNI, CNRA and Joint Research Projects.
