Switzerland nominated Vice-President of the next CNS Review Meeting

News, International Affairs

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A large majority of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety CNS have elected ENSI Deputy Director Georg Schwarz to be Vice-President of the 7th Review Meeting of the Convention. This will be held in spring 2017 in Vienna. It will enable Switzerland to contribute even more effectively to improving the CNS review.

Switzerland was elected along with Canada and Ghana into the presiding committee of the 7th Review Meeting of the CNS. In this role, Switzerland maychair the so-called “Open-Ended Working Group”, in whichproposals are to be discussed to further improve and strengthen the CNS review process.

“This appointment represents a success for us because it reflects and confirms our continuing commitment within the review process of the CNS”, says ENSI Director Hans Wanner. “We will endeavour to see that the review process in 2017 is carried out thoroughly and rigorously , and above all that the principles contained in the Vienna Declaration are implemented nationally and applied in the review process”, adds Hans Wanner.

Vienna Declaration

At a diplomatic conference in Vienna in February 2015, the Contracting Parties agreed on safety principles that derived from the original Swiss proposal to amend the Convention on Nuclear Safety CNS.

These principles include the following main elements:

  1. New nuclear power plants are to be designed, sited, and constructed, consistent with the objective of preventing accidents in the commissioning and operation and, should an accident occur, mitigating possible releases of radionuclides causing long-term off site contamination and avoiding early radioactive releases or radioactive releases large enough to require long-term protective measures and actions.
  1. Comprehensive and systematic safety assessments are to be carried out periodically and regularly for existing installations throughout their lifetime in order to identify safety improvements that are oriented to meet the above objective. Reasonably practicable or achievable safety improvements are to be implemented in a timely manner.
The next regular review meeting of the CNS will take place in spring 2017. The 7th national report of Switzerland will have to be submitted to the IAEA in summer 2016. The Convention obliges the Contracting Parties to submit a national report on the status of implementation of the CNS requirements, every three years, and to participate in the international review meetings in Vienna.