On November 13, 2023, the regular plenary meeting of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) began in Paris (France). Ukraine is represented by the delegation of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine headed by SNRIU Acting Chairman, Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh KORIKOV.

As part of a meeting held at the office of the Nuclear Safety Authority of France (ASN), it is planned to review and approve the WENRA Strategy and updated Terms of Reference, to listen to the results of the Reactor Harmonization Working Group (RHWG), WENRA’s Working Group on Waste & Decommissioning (WGWD), the Working Group on Research Reactors (WGRR), management team reports on reference safety levels (SRL SG), to consider granting Japan's application for associate status and a number of other issues.

The program of the WENRA meeting provides a separate session on the situation with challenges to nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine, which arose as a result of a full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation into our state. Within the framework of this session, the delegation of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine will present a report on the current state of nuclear and radiation safety at Zaporizhzhya NPP, as well as on Ukraine's progress in abandoning Russian nuclear fuel for reactor units such as WWER-1000 and WWER-440.

In addition, at the regular plenary meeting of WENRA, questions will be raised about the possibility of representatives of the Association conducting an independent assessment of the security situation of Zaporizhzhya NPP during the Russian occupation.

For reference:

WENRA - Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (The independent association of European national nuclear regulators) was founded in 1999 as an association of senior management (heads) of Western European regulatory authorities of those countries where at least one nuclear installation is located during the construction, operation or decommissioning phase.

The WENRA Association includes Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain and Ukraine (since 2015).

One of the main tasks of the WENRA is to establish, implement and disseminate harmonized and exemplary levels of nuclear safety, which are based on IAEA recommendations and reflect the best practices of European countries.