Session III: Common Safety Standards-The best way to best practices

• The IAEA Safety Standards aim at:– Enhancing safety principles and criteria– Documenting best available safety practices– Achieving comparable level of safety worldwide

• They provide a basis for developing national legislative and regulatory frameworks without becoming legally binding to Member States

• However, because of differing national cultures, politics and history, the legislative and regulatory frameworks and the way in which they are implemented vary from country to country

• Radioactive waste management and disposal are very sensitive from the political and societal point of view

Harmonisation of principles and practices, where feasible, may contribute to the confidence in the safety of the radioactive waste programs, specially in the HLW disposal programs

Carmen Ruiz Lopez, CSN, Spain

The Joint Convention as prime harmonisation mechanism

• The Joint Convention – Recognises national sovereignty over policy definition and the

responsibility for safety assurance rest with the States– Imposes binding national commitments to the ratifying States, backed

by international peer review

• Specifies a number of– Fundamental obligations regarding national legislation and regulatory

infrastructure– Important steps to be included in the national regulatory framework

to ensure that individuals, society and the environment are adequately protected at all stages of SF and RW management

– Safety requirements related to siting, design, operation and assessment of the safety of planned facilities, and to the review of existing facilities

Carmen Ruiz Lopez, CSN, Spain

The Joint Convention as prime harmonisation mechanism

• It is an incentive convention, like the Convention on N Safety: It sets up “soft” provisions whereby contracting parties commit themselves to

work towards international safety objectives and achievement of best practices

• The experience with the Convention on N Safety shows that incentive conventions can make a valuable contribution to national safety programs Bringing closer the different national regulation approaches and practices Providing a progressive process through the successive review meeting

• The experience with the 1st Review Meeting (RM) under the Joint Convention has been very positive Started with a self assessment when producing the national report Followed by the review by other countries, exchange of questions and comments Ending with a very open discussion at the RM and a report with the findings

Safety standards were used in some cases as references basis for the compliance of the more general requirements of the Joint Convention

Carmen Ruiz Lopez, CSN, Spain

Conclusions: Harmonization via co-operation

• The Joint Convention provides the prime instrument for harmonisation and for building confidence in the safety of national radioactive waste programs

• International co-operation through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms could also play an important role in enhancing the safety and the confidence The development of the Joint Convention is itself a demonstration of the

importance of international co-operation

• Question for the discussion: Is the harmonization introduced by the Joint Convention

sufficient, especially as regards to stakeholders and public confidence, and in particular in the context of the HLW disposal?

Carmen Ruiz Lopez, CSN, Spain