The International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA) has held its 47th meeting, via videoconference, in which the president of the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), Josep Maria Serena i Sender, has participated.

The meeting began with the opening speech pronounced by Nina Cromnier, president of INRA and general director of the Swedish Radiological Protection Authority, who highlighted the excellent exchange of information on regulatory measures that has been maintained between the members during the pandemic.

Among the issues addressed in this meeting, the safety culture and organizational efficiency in regulatory bodies have been analyzed starting from the experience of two members of INRA (Canada and Sweden). Each member country gave then a brief presentation on the most relevant regulatory issues that have taken place since the last meeting in their country.

The president of the CSN shared with the rest of participants the main activities, as well as the most important decisions taken by the CSN Board of Commissioners, that the Spanish regulatory body has carried out in recent months. In this regard, he underlined the new Strategic Plan that, in the words of Serena i Sender, "increases the efficiency and effectiveness in the performance of the functions of the CSN" for the next five years. Likewise, he highlighted the development of a "Systematic Approach to Training” with full application to all CSN workers; he provided basic information on the safety culture self-assessment process that is in progress; and he also shared the future goal of the full digitization of the regulator to optimize all its work processes.

Regarding the main regulatory issues during 2020-2021, Serena i Sender stressed out the technical evaluation and licensing activities, such as those linked to the operating license application from Cofrentes nuclear power plant, which has obtained the renewal of its operating license endorsed by the positive report from the CSN safety assessment.

To conclude, the CSN president wanted to highlight that all the activities carried out throughout the pandemic have highly motivated the regulator to improve its tools for planning as well as project management capabilities towards the optimization of resources and with the main aim of achieving the best level of efficiency.

INRA usually holds two 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.

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.

 

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