The commissioner of the of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), Javier Dies, has attended in Vienna, the 50th meeting of the Commission on Safety Standards (CSS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which took place from November 16 to 18. In this meeting there were discussed, among other issues, the updating of the Safety Guides, the Commission's Strategic Plan or the management of the pandemic.

The Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security of the IAEA, Lydie Evrard, assured the CSS members that reducing the deadlines in the publication of the guides will be established as a priority. For her part, the president of the CSS, Rumina Velshi, thanked the Agency for its commitment to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the publication process.

The meeting took place following the usual methodology. In the first place, the activities carried out in the different committees that form part of the Commission were highlighted; the Nuclear Safety (NUSSC), Transport (TRANSSC), Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPRESC), Radioactive Waste (WASSC) and Radiological Protection (RASSC), as well as the Nuclear Physical Safety Guidelines Committee (NSGC), in which, moreover, CSN technical experts with extensive experience and recognized prestige in the corresponding areas are actively participating.

Status of the IAEA Safety Guides

Subsequently, seven draft safety guides were submitted for approval, related to protection against internal and external events in the operation of nuclear power plants, the safe transport of radioactive materials and their storage, the geotechnical aspects of the site for the basis of the nuclear installations design, security, the control of nuclear and other radioactive materials outside of regulatory control and the preparation of security response plans.

In addition, the report on the progress of the deficiency analysis prepared by the Secretariat of the Commission on the possible repercussions on safety standards and information on the joint work for safety orientation has also been discussed.

On the part of commissioner Dies, the need to analyze in detail the interface between safety and security in order to be able to systematically tackle cyber threats was expressed, whether of malicious origin or of the very nature of the use of systems and digital components.

During this meeting, the activities related to small modular reactors (SMR) were also updated and the completion of the IAEA Safety report on the implications of the 2012 UNSCEAR report for standards was reported: Considerations on Attribution of Radiation Effects on Health and Radiation Risk Inference.

The next meeting of this Commission is scheduled to take place in April 2022.

The IAEA safety standards are divided into three groups of publications: the Fundamental Safety Principles, the Safety Requirements and the Safety Guides. Currently there are a total of more than 150 of these standards, which are used as a reference by a majority of States throughout the world during the development or modification of their regulations on nuclear and radiological safety.

 

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