Detailed search

The Integrated Regulatory Review Service Mission has been Launched

2015.05.13

More than 100 Hungarian and foreign experts participated in the opening session of the IRRS-Mission on 11th May, 2015. The foreign experts sent by the International Atomic Energy Agency conduct a review process on the entire Hungarian nuclear regulatory infrastructure for safety and security in the next two weeks.


As the team leader of the IRRS-Mission, Mr. Michael R. Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) emphasized in his introductory speech: the Hungarian nuclear regulatory system is going to be reviewed and not inspected, so that recommendations and suggestions can be outlined at the end to enhance the efficiency of the system. The experts face an intensive two-week period: interviews, site visits and discussions will lead to a preliminary report. The team leader highly appreciated that Hungary itself had initiated the peer review in order to develop its nuclear regulatory regime, which ultimately serves public interest.



At the opening session Mr. Gyula Fichtinger, Director General of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Agency highlighted that Hungary is strongly committed to the continuous development of nuclear safety. This is why the IRRS-mission, for which preparations have been made since 2013, is invited to Hungary. „We would like to operate a more efficient regulatory infrastructure” – added Gyula Fichtinger, and expressed his hope that the recommendations to be outlined in the report would contribute to this aim.



Ms. Andrea Beatrix Kádár, Deputy State Secretary for Energy emphasized that the result of the IRRS-Mission is of high importance for the Hungarian Government. The common aim is to make the Hungarian regulatory system fully compliant with international standards. She underlined in her speech: energy savings and energy efficiency, regional cooperation, increasing the share of renewable energy and low carbon-dioxide emission belong to the main goals of the National Energy Strategy 2030, and, the maintenance of the existing nuclear capacities is also an important element that consists of nuclear power plant service lifetime extension and the construction of new nuclear units. The Deputy State Secretary added: the Hungarian national programme on spent fuel management and radioactive waste management is under elaboration.



Mr. Géza Sáfrány, the Director General of the „Frédéric Joliot-Curie” National Research Institute for Radiobiology and Radiohygiene of the National Public Health and Medical Officer Service and Mr. Tibor Schwarz, the Head of the Department for Environmental Protection of the Government Office of Baranya County also addressed the participants and wished a successful work.



Previous press releases referring to IRRS:



The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority has started the preparation for the IRRS Mission



The Advance Reference Material (ARM) submitted