ISIN at the IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety Review Conference.

The 8th and 9th Joint Periodic Review Conference of the Convention on nuclear safety started yesterday and will continue until 31 March at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

The objective of the Convention is to promote, worldwide, the achievement and maintenance of a high level of safety of nuclear power plants, through the strengthening of national measures and international cooperation, and to ensure that during the operation of effective defense measures are implemented, in order to prevent and mitigate any accidents with radiological consequences for workers and the population.

The main objective of the review conference is to present and discuss the National Reports prepared by the 91 contracting countries on the basis of which the peer review process was carried out, which ended on 17 February last. The main topics covered in the National Reports and in the review process concern: national policies, the institutional, legislative and regulatory framework for the safe operation of nuclear power plants, the measures implemented following the Fukushima accident to raise the margins of safety of the plants, the resources available for the regulator and the operator, the management of emergencies.

The Italian National Report for the Convention was prepared by ISIN, on behalf of the Italian Government, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the Review Conference, ISIN held today the expected presentation of the National Report, answering the questions that were posed by the delegations of the contracting countries belonging to the Working Group n. 3 (China, Argentina, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, Nigeria, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Bolivia), in which Italy has been included.

During the discussion, Italy demonstrated that it had closed the 3 challenges that emerged during the previous 7th Review Conference of the Nuclear Safety Convention and 2 new challenges were advanced regarding the completion of the knowledge transfer to the newly hired staff of ISIN and the conducting the IAEA ARTEMIS and IRRS missions in 2023 and 2026 respectively.

Italy has also been recognized for 2 good practices: the development of an intense training program for newly hired ISIN personnel and the issuing of the new National Plan for Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies, which adopts a graduated approach in implementing countermeasures mainly taking into account the distance of foreign plants from national borders.

The Italian Delegation includes Ambassador Alessandro Cortese of the Permanent Representation to the International Organizations in Vienna, officials of ISIN and SO.G.I.N. as national operator of the four decommissioning plants of Caorso, Garigliano, Latina and Trino.

At the following links it is possible to download the Italian Report and the answers provided to the questions posed to Italy.

Further information is available on the IAEA website in the section dedicated to the Convention:https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-safety-conventions/convention-nuclear-safety