Contenido principal
2022
The president of the CSN participates in the 49th meeting of INRA in Japan
The president of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), Juan Carlos Lentijo, has participated this week in the 49th meeting of the International Nuclear Regulators’ Association (INRA) that is being held in the Japanese city of Sendai.
The president of the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Toyoshi Fuketa served as host and explained the value of the work of the nuclear and radiological safety regulator in a country like Japan, the third in the world in terms of power generated by nuclear energy, only behind the US and France. In addition, Fuketa handed over the INRA presidency to his Canadian counterpart, Rumina Velshi, who will chair the association of regulators for a year.
During the meeting, regulators discussed the challenges they must face, as well as improvements in international review processes and the search for efficiency within their own organisations. On this last point, the president of the CSN stressed out that all the work carried out by the institution is aligned with its strategic plan, which takes the Sustainable Development Objectives set for 2030 as a fundamental reference.
Likewise, with the common thread of the strategic plan, "the CSN has begun to apply and will address in the coming years numerous improvements and challenges from the organizational point of view, related to digital transformation, change management, safety culture and other cross-cutting issues, such as education and training programs for our staff” informed Lentijo.
Additionally, the president of the Spanish regulator addressed in his presentation the main lines and provisions for the execution of all these initiatives, as well as other topics of technical and regulatory interest. Among the issues that aroused the most interest among his international counterparts were the decommissioning of the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant in Burgos and the public perception of the institution.
The Japanese regulator reported on the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and the country's plans to release treated water into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled manner. This protocol is the one being used to purify the affected waters at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in the process of being decommissioned since the nuclear crisis triggered by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami of March 2011. In this encounter, the regulators also addressed the situation in Ukraine and continued to monitor the safety and security of nuclear facilities in the country, carried out mainly through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
About INRA
The International Nuclear Regulators’ Association (INRA), founded by the regulatory bodies of the nine countries in the world with more experience in the licensing of nuclear activities (Germany, Canada, Spain, France, Japan, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United States of America) was created in Paris in May 1997.
INRA holds two official meetings a year where regulatory issues of common interest are openly discussed. In this international association, transparency, multilateral cooperation and the exchange of experiences among the countries that compose it are promoted.
* Check here the glossary of technical terms *