Third Swiss Report: Convention on Nuclear Safety
Switzerland gave its signature to the Convention on Nuclear Safety on the 31st of October 1995 and ratified it on the 12th of September 1996. The first and second Swiss reports, in accordance with Article 5 of the Convention were produced and deposited with the IAEA in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In 1999 a Swiss delegation attended the first, and in 2002, the second Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. The present third Swiss report provides updated information on the fulfilment of the obligations under the Convention. In addition, the report attempts to give adequate consideration to the topics which aroused special interest at the second Review Meeting. Once again, the third Swiss report strives to give again a complete picture of the nuclear safety status in Switzerland as of July 2004. It was written by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (HSK), with contributions from other public and private institutions. The introduction to the report provides general information about Switzerland, a brief political history of nuclear power and an overview of the nuclear facilities in Switzerland. In the following sections, numbered after the Articles 6 to 19 of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, key aspects will be commented on in such a way as to give a clear indication on how the various obligations imposed by the Convention are fulfilled in Switzerland. A list of abbreviations used in the text appears as Appendix 1. An overview of the contents of the report, and the conclusions about the degree of compliance with the obligations, as set out in the Convention, is given in the „Summary and Conclusions“ section.