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The HAEA completed the National Report for the EU Topical Peer Review

2017.12.19

The EU Nuclear Safety Directive (2014/87/EURATOM (NSD)) requires member states operating nuclear facilities to perform a Topical Peer Review at least every six years. The first Topical Peer Review took place in 2017. As the first step of the review, member states have to prepare a National Assessment Report in the specified topic, which they need to publish in English as well. Then member states mutually review each other’s reports, and the public may also make comments and put questions to them. Experts are also invited by the EU to study the reports. Finally, the results of the review will be discussed by the representatives of member states and the invited experts in an international peer review workshop in the spring of 2018. The results will be summarized in a report after the workshop.


Based on the decision of ENSREG (the nuclear safety advisory group of the European Commission consisting of the senior officials of the nuclear authorities of the member states) the topic of the 2017 topical peer review was ageing management. The review had to be performed for nuclear power plants in operation or holding an effective construction license and for nuclear research reactors above 1 MW power. The purpose of the review was to overview the national regulations, reveal issues and good practices in the facilities, identify and share relevant operating experiences, carry out a review of the results on European level and to recognize common technical issues. A specification on the scope of the review and content of the national reports was developed in order to uniformly document the review results.

In Hungary, two facilities fell in the scope of the review: the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and the Budapest Research Reactor. The self-assessment part of the review was completed by both facilities and they sent their reports to the HAEA. The HAEA reviewed the reports and based on them and on its own assessments developed the National Assessment Reports, which have been published both in Hungarian and English on the HAEA website.

The review results can be summarized as follows:
·        Concerning ageing management, the Hungarian regulations are in full compliance with the international recommendations.
·        The HAEA follows the concept of continuous oversight also in this area, ageing management is embedded in the regulatory licensing, inspection and assessment activities.
·        Ageing management activities in both facilities comply with the national regulations and also with the international requirements and good practices.
·        The facilities are prepared to manage the anticipated ageing mechanisms and to identify and manage any unanticipated degradation.
·        The facilities are performing the activities to maintain the safe conditions of the plant equipment on a continuous basis.

The HAEA submitted the National Assessment Report on the topical peer review to the competent EU organizations. To download the document please click here.