ENSI’s tasks
150 employees of the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI work every day in various fields for the nuclear safety of the Swiss population.
Background articles
We vouch for the safety of the population.
ENSI’s successful supervisory work largely depends on the quality of its staff. It is not only their experience and special qualifications that are needed, but also their values, their attitude and their ability to enter into a critical, but constructive relationship with operators and with the stakeholders in politics and society.
A credible partner in questions of nuclear safety
The Federal Council’s energy strategy for 2050 is based on a gradual withdrawal from the nuclear energy programme. Under the new conditions, ENSI, as a specialised body of the Confederation that is politically and economically independent, also ensures the safety of nuclear installations.
Convention on Nuclear Safety ensures high global safety standards in nuclear power plants
The Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) is an international agreement aimed at increasing the safety of civil-sector nuclear power plants throughout the world. Switzerland is one of the founder nations of the CNS and is actively involved in strengthening the accord.
Guided Tours of the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
The International Mont Terri Rock Laboratory is situated near the small town of St-Ursanne in the canton of Jura. At the Rock Laboratory, a total of 22 partners from Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Spain and the US carry out research into the properties of Opalinus clay, which is a potential host rock for […]
New Nuclear Power Plants
In 2008, general licence applications were submitted for three new nuclear power plants in Switzerland: the Mühleberg replacement nuclear power plant, the Beznau 1 & 2 replacement nuclear power plants, and a new construction project at Niederamt in the canton of Solothurn. For the purposes of the general licences, ENSI began by examining whether the […]
HRA
HRA, Human Reliability Analysis: the HRA project examines the reliability of human actions, taking account of various boundary conditions. The state of the art is the determination of failure probabilities for actions that are required during an incident, but are not performed. On the other hand, there is no efficient method for the systematic identification […]
People, Organisation and Safety Culture
People, organisation and safety culture have a major influence on the safety of a nuclear plant. The research projects supported by ENSI in this area deal with the influence of human actions in incident situations, as well as requirements profiles for staff at nuclear power plants. The following projects in the field of people, organisation […]
Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
The objective of the international Mont Terri Rock Laboratory Research Project is to study the geological, hydrogeological, geochemical and geomechanical properties of Opalinus clay. These properties are critically important for the assessment of the safety and technical feasibility of a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in this type of rock. In 2009, ENSI’s research […]