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.