Detailed search

Convention on Nuclear Safety: the 7th Review Meeting concluded in Vienna

2017.04.20

The 7th Review Meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), which started on 27 March 2017, concluded on 7 April 2017 after its two-week session. Several points of the Hungarian practice was established as good performance, increased measures of transparency were established as a good practice, a model for other Contracting Parties.


Every three years, Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety hold a review meeting during which their representatives report of their national nuclear safety practices and the changes occurred since the last meeting. Before each review meeting, Member States submit their national report to the Secretariat of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, answer questions addressed to each other and describe developments that occurred after the submission of the report through presentations at the review meeting.

In the first week of the meeting, Contracting Parties discussed their national reports and presentations in country groups, and in addition to the earlier ones, they asked and answered questions and made comments on the nuclear safety practices presented by other countries.

At the 7th Review Meeting, Hungary was represented by a delegation led by Mr Gyula Fichtinger, Director General of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority. In his presentation, Gábor Petőfi, Head of Department of the HAEA, addressed the safety improvement of the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Hungary, the implementation of remedial measures in connection with the lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and recent experience in Hungary in connection with the national implementation of the Vienna Declaration. After the presentation, representatives of the HAEA, the Ministry of National Development, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, the Government Commissioner for  the maintenance of the capacity of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and other members of the Hungarian delegation answered questions posed by other Member States.

Based on the national report, the presentation and the answers of Hungary, the Review Meeting confirmed that the Hungarian practice fulfils the safety requirements of the Convention. In addition, several points of the Hungarian practice was established as good performance, e.g. the use of a smartphone app to provide emergency alerts (VESZ) and the knowledge management project of HAEA. Increased measures of transparency were established as a good practice, a model for other Contracting Parties.

Following intensive discussions and reflections on the national reports from 79 countries, the Review Meeting identified and offered ideas to ensure achievement of high levels of safety. These included ideas to address financial and human resource constraints, safety concerns related to ageing nuclear facilities, the need for harmonized cross-border emergency planning approaches and maintaining oversight of the supply chain to ensure safety.  

Contracting Parties acknowledged the value of the CNS review meetings and other voluntary international peer review processes in encouraging continuous self-assessment and improvement.

The 8th Review Meeting will take place in 2020.

To download the National Report click here, for the questions to Hungary and our answers for the 7th Review Meeting of the CNS, please click here. The Hungarian National Presentation can be found here.