Strengthened Italian-Swiss collaboration on nuclear safety

The 9th meeting of the Italian-Swiss Commission - CIS took place today in Thun in Switzerland, which periodically brings together the heads of the Nuclear Safety Inspectorates of the two countries, the National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ISIN) and the '' Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety of the Swiss Federation (ENSI), for a reciprocal update and a comparison on current issues concerning nuclear matters.

During today's meeting the issues related to the management of control activities during the pandemic were discussed, the issue of radioactive waste management (the new STRIMS tracing system was illustrated on the Italian side), the issue of long-term deposits, the high level of waste which, in different ways, affects both countries.

The object of the bilateral confrontation was also the consequences of the war in Ukraine on the energy scenario and the issue, in some way connected, of the extension of the activity of the plants currently operating in Switzerland.

From ISIN the point was made on the decommissioning process of the nuclear power plants closed following the 1986 referendum and of all the other installations of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The two delegations also discussed national emergency management plans. ISIN presented the new national plan for nuclear emergencies recently updated with new forecasts in relation to different accident scenarios.

At the end of the works, the ISIN director Maurizio Pernice underlined the quality and profitability of the comparison, thanking the ENSI director Marc Kenzelmann for the hospitality and for the breadth and depth of the contributions, reiterating that meetings like today's strengthen the collaboration between Italy and Switzerland in an important and delicate issue, and particularly “felt” by public opinion such as that of nuclear safety.

The meeting was attended, for the ISIN:
- Maurizio Pernice, director general
- Salvatore Bianca, spokesman for the director
- Mario Dionisi, head of the radioactive waste management area
- Paolo Zeppa, head of the nuclear safety area
- Fabrizio Trenta, coordinator of the control activities of the decommissioning of the disused plants

For ENSI:
- Marc Kenzelmann, director general
- Rosa Sardella, director of the radiological protection division
- Stefan Theis, waste management division
- Annatina Müller-Germanà, head of the international affairs section
- Georg Schwarz, former nuclear safety director
- Louisa Cakir, international affairs section

The meeting was also attended by Annina Frischknecht, Head of International Affairs, Emergency Operations Center of the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection.

The next bilateral Italian-Swiss meeting will be held in Italy on 15 and 16 May 2023.