The president of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), Josep Maria Serena i Sender, has participated in the forty-eighth meeting of the International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA) held in Vienna (Austria), coinciding with the celebration of the 65th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The meeting began with the intervention of the new president of INRA and the highest representative of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Japan (NRA), Toyoshi Fuketa, who took the opportunity to summarize the current state of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the attendees.

Throughout this day, the problems and technological solutions planned for the treatment and future discharge of contaminated water at the Fukushima site have been addressed. Within this section, Lydie Evrard, Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security of the IAEA, presented the outline of the Agency's assistance mission on treated water in Fukushima. Likewise, another topic that has been debated among the different regulatory bodies on a monographic basis has been the innovation in the nuclear sector and the regulation of associated safety aspects, led by Nina Cromnier, Director General of the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM).

CSN participation

During the debate dedicated to the topic of innovation, the president of the CSN focused on the importance of innovative technologies in the nuclear industry. Specifically, Serena i Sender has exposed the challenges that the sector is facing from the point of view of nuclear safety regulation in the face of the emergence of these new technologies.

On his turn to speak, the president of the CSN pointed out the determining aspects that regulatory bodies must address in order to update their respective organisations and processes with respect to innovative technologies; Traditional safety analysis should give way to a more flexible scheme, the administrative model for the granting of authorizations should be streamlined and safety codes and standards applicable to new nuclear technologies, mainly Small Modular Reactors (SMR), should tend towards their homogenization. Likewise, Serena i Sender explained that it is essential to harmonize criteria, evaluations and generic approvals at an international level, as well as cooperation and international projects in the fields of standards and regulation focused on new technologies.

To end his speech, the CSN president wanted to underline the crucial importance of public participation, communication and transparency in all projects related to nuclear and radiological safety.

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.

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