WENRA Spring Plenary Meeting

The Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) held its Spring Plenary Meeting on 5-6 April 2022, partly with personal participation in Bonn and partly online. Among other topics, the discussions included WENRA actions conducted in relation to the situation in Ukraine, activities on small modular reactors (SMR), future challenges and WENRA’s role in the Thematic Peer Review. The Plenary Meeting also approved the reports of the working groups.

In the first part of the meeting, that was open only for full members, WENRA membership was discussed. Members agreed that enlargement with a limited number of observers has the most advantages for the organization. Subsequently, the USA was welcomed as a new observer to WENRA. The Plenary held a lively debate on WENRA actions conducted to date concerning the situation in Ukraine, which were considered relevant and appropriate, as well as on future challenges in the current nuclear landscape. Regarding small modular reactors, WENRA continues collecting on-going activities and regulatory experience in order to be able to develop common regulatory expectations for SMRs in the future.

The Plenary approved the reports of the WENRA working group chairs about their latest activities and noted some new developments related to nuclear safety, presented by individual countries. Finally, members agreed to hold the WENRA fall meeting in Liverpool on 9-10 November 2022.