The NEA’s Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) held their latest biannual meetings to discuss their activities and the best practices for the safety assessment and regulation of nuclear facilities in June.
The 77th and 53rd meetings of the CSNI and CNRA, respectively, took place in Paris from 2 to 3 June and from 5 to 6 June 2025, bringing together over 80 delegates from 20 countries. A CSNI-CNRA bureau seminar was organised on the margins of the committee meetings and was attended by 13 members from 9 countries. It was focused on challenges facing the CSNI and CNRA in the nuclear sector as well as the factors that are driving member countries to engage in the activities of these two NEA standing technical committees and their subsidiary bodies.
CNRA Chair Tomoya Ichimura thanked participants for sharing their views on key regulatory topics and for providing comments and proposals for future CNRA activities.
CSNI participants elected elected Dr Ki Yong Choi of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute as its new chair. Dr Choi is the first Korean national to chair an NEA Standing Technical Committee. He will lead the CSNI's work for the next three years.
Dr Ki Yong Choi, CSNI Chair
Both chairs recognised the need for further enhancing co-operation and for developing a strategic joint paper.
During the meetings, the CNRA and CSNI members addressed several topics of interest to both committees, including:
- active involvement of Ukrainian representatives through the Independent Exchange Forum on VVER (water-cooled water-moderated power reactor) reactors, which will be supported by survey results of the needs of countries operating these technologies;
- the regulator’s role in leading interactions with new or existing industry players that are introducing innovative approaches and new technologies to ensure effective and efficient nuclear safety;
- a review of the CNRA/CSNI Document Guidance Procedure and implementation of internal steps to improve publication timeliness;
- an update on the Toolkit for implementing the approaches described in the Green Book, The Characteristics of a Trusted Regulator. The toolkit will be made available as a living document;
- approval of two reports and three new activities, including one focused on a planned workshop entitled Efficient and Effective Licensing of New Nuclear Power Plants;
- approval in principle of the renewal of almost all the CNRA working group mandates;
- an update on CSNI plans for a workshop entitled SMR Safety Assessment: From Challenges to Achievements, to be held in November 2025 and involving industry representatives;
- an update on the NEA Safety Research Roadmap, due to be published in 2025, which will provide key recommendations for implementing new safety research activities and frameworks;
- the CSNI Programme Review Group, which has expanded its expertise in ageing, long-term operation and probabilistic safety assessment, as well as co-ordinating different joint projects within the same topic areas;
- approval of nine CSNI reports on a wide range of technical topics, and endorsement of four new activities and tasks by CSNI working groups;
- approval of the CSNI Status Report on LTO (long-term operation) beyond 60 Years, which summarises the current knowledge regarding the operation of nuclear power plants (pressurised water reactors including VVERs, boiling water reactors and pressurised heavy-water reactors, including CANDUs) beyond 60 years, and identifies potential knowledge gaps and solutions to enhance areas requiring improvement. Due to significant interest in this report from both committees, the NEA aims to publish it in 2025.
