The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), through commissioner Javier Dies and the technical director of Nuclear Safety, Rafael Cid, have participated in the plenary meeting of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) which has been held between April 13 and 14 electronically.

The meeting began with opening remarks by the President of WENRA, Olivier Gupta (Director General of the French nuclear regulatory authority, ASN), commenting on the latest changes in the association, the news about recent external meetings and the coordination initiatives with the different working groups.

Among the points addressed on the first day of the meeting, the presentation of activities associated with the coordination effort aimed at ensuring coherence, consistency and safety relevance for all WENRA reference levels stands out, by an ad hoc group created to that end. Commissioner Dies was very favorable to this action, which entails increasing interaction and mutual feedback between the constituent groups of WENRA as well as high-level monitoring by the association's management.

Subsequently, the implications linked to the development of the technical specifications associated with the next Topical Peer Review (TPR) under the Nuclear Safety Directive, to be completed in the next four years, were analyzed. This project involves the application of safety reference levels in nuclear facilities, not just in nuclear power plants. Likewise, the desirable characteristics in the delineation of the technical specifications were discussed, concluding with the convenience for these specifications to derive from the reference levels and in turn to be flexible enough in order to be able to address the different typologies of nuclear facilities, in a commensurate manner with the existing risk in each type of facility, stressing accordingly the importance of adopting the principle of graded approach, the scope and mode of application of which must be described in detail. Spain, through the CSN, participates in the definition of the technical specifications that will govern this important review exercise from the technical point of view.

The attendees also reviewed the latest news from the association's three permanent working groups, dedicated to the harmonization of nuclear safety requirements for reactors, the safe management of radioactive waste and decommissioning activities, and the nuclear safety in research reactors. Specifically, the reports on the safety objectives of new reactors have been analyzed and especially the report on the applicability of these objectives to Small Modular Reactors (SMR). Javier Dies mentioned the need for defining ‘technologically neutral’ safety objectives enabling, among others, the use of accident tolerant fuel and increased enrichment. Likewise, the commissioner reported that a Spanish company is participating in a SMR technology design phase.

Finally, the representatives of the different regulators that make up this association presented the most important activities that their institutions have faced since the last meeting.

The Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) was created 20 years ago in the spirit of establishing a regional forum that allows the exchange of information and experiences in nuclear safety and the development of initiatives and programs within the framework of the European Union, aimed at the harmonization of the safety of nuclear installations in Europe.

The Nuclear Safety Council is one of the founding members and participates in plenary meetings as well as in permanent working groups.

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