On 14 March 2024, Head of SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh Korikov met with Mark Foy, Chief Executive and Chief Nuclear Inspector of the United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), in the framework of the 36th Annual Information Conference of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), held in Washington, DC, USA.

During the meeting, the parties discussed areas of cooperation under the recently signed Information Exchange and Cooperation Agreement and identified priorities for the near future. In particular, these include

studying the experience of developing and implementing a strategy for managing radioactive materials of natural origin;

regulatory aspects of radioactive waste management safety (in particular, studying the experience of assessing the safety of radioactive waste disposal at commercial landfills, etc;

practical aspects of radioactive waste management in the form of decommissioned radiation sources (hereinafter referred to as IRS) (in particular, experience in substantiating the safety of IRS disposal);

improvement of legislative procedures and tools for management of decommissioned radiation sources (service life extension, reprocessing, reuse, etc.);

study and improvement of existing legislative acts, recommendations and procedures for ageing management of radioactive waste management facilities.

The SNRIU Chairman also noted that Ukraine is interested in adopting the UK experience in licensing small modular reactors.

During the meeting, the heads of nuclear regulators also discussed preparations for the next meeting of WENRA (Western European Nuclear Regulators Association) to be held on 24-25 April 2024, where an entire session will be devoted to nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine. It should be noted that Mark Foy has been heading WENRA since 1 January 2024.

As a reminder, the Agreement on Information Exchange and Cooperation between the Nuclear Regulators of Ukraine and the United Kingdom was signed on 28 September 2023 by Oleh Korikov and Mark Foy during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 67th IAEA General Conference.