In the last meeting of the Belgian Presidency, on 19 June 2024, the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority took over the chairmanship of the EU Council's preparatory body on atomic questions. The priorities of the Hungarian Presidency's six-month programme will be the situation of nuclear safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, security of nuclear fuel supply, international initiatives on small modular reactors, and highlighting the Hungarian achievements in nuclear forensics, which are outstanding at international level. From now on, HAEA will be responsible for preparing the meetings of the working group for six months and chairing the meetings, which will also be an opportunity to give greater priority to issues of importance to Hungary.
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority hosted the international nuclear safeguards consultation regarding the new nuclear power plant, held on 10 June 2024. The discussion focused on the concept of Safeguards by Design, which promotes the consideration of international nuclear safeguards requirements in the design of new nuclear power plants. The meeting was attended by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Commission, Paks II Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. and HAEA , who discussed how the new blocks can meet the technical specifications set out in the international organizations’ document on basis of nuclear safeguards requirements.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, with the participation of experts from the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority and the Energy Research Institute, held a regional meeting on the Integrated Nuclear Security Sustainability Plan in Montenegro from 3 to 7 June 2024. The objective of the meeting was to provide participants with an overview of the recent revision of the Plan, which provides a complex assessment and evaluation of the nuclear security systems of each Member State, its revised objectives and, in this context, the possibilities for Member States to support the development of the nuclear security regulatory system.
A nuclear safety inspector of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, András Gábor Siklósi, participated in the expert mission of the European Union, which aimed to evaluate the comprehensive and transparent risk and safety assessment (so called stress test) report for the NPP under construction at the Akkuyu site. During the site visit the experts carried out walk-downs and consulted with the representatives of the Turkish nuclear regulator as well as the representatives of the Licensee in order to finalize their findings made during the years long peer review process.