From 30 September to 03 October 2024, the final ENSREG working meeting was held in Luxembourg to defend national reports on the assessment of the state of fire protection of nuclear facilities of the countries participating in the second thematic peer review (TPR II). The Ukrainian delegation, which included representatives of the SNRIU and the State Scientific and Technical Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, took part in this event.
The TPR II was conducted in the EU countries in accordance with the requirements of Council Directive 2014/87/EURATOM of 8 July 2014 amending Directive 2009/71/EC establishing a Community framework for the nuclear safety of nuclear installations.
Thematic peer reviews are organised every six years by the European Commission, ENSREG and WENRA. These inspections are mandatory for all EU member states operating nuclear facilities, and the reports are considered by the European Parliament (participation in such inspections is optional for Ukraine).
At the SNRIU's initiative and taking into account Ukraine's successful participation in previous European initiatives aimed at improving the safety of nuclear facilities, our country joined this process on a voluntary basis.
“This activity is an important step of Ukraine towards European integration and harmonisation of the national legislation of Ukraine with the legislation of the European Union and best European practices in the field of nuclear facilities safety”, Head of SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Oleh Korikov said.
The SNRIU established interagency coordination and working groups to conduct a self-assessment of the level of fire protection of nuclear facilities according to the WENRA methodology (technical specification), develop a relevant National assessment report and prepare for its defence at the international level.
During the workshop, the Ukrainian delegation successfully presented and defended the National fire protection assessment report for nuclear facilities. The TPR II participating countries highly appreciated the state of fire protection of nuclear facilities in Ukraine.
The workshop was the final stage of the more than three-year TPR II process. The SNRIU, with the approval of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, together with the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety and with the involvement of representatives of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, State Emergency Service of Ukraine, State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, SE «NNEGC «Energoatom», SSE Chornobyl NPP, Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, ensured the development of the National report of Ukraine on fire protection assessment of nuclear facilities in accordance with the WENRA technical specification, submission of this report to ENSREG for peer review by the participating countries, as well as answering questions from expert groups and countries participating in the second peer review.
In addition, SNRIU and SSTC NRS representatives joined the group of European experts aimed at benchmarking national reports of TPR II participating countries and developing proposals for the ENSREG draft final report on TPR II results.
After the results of the peer review are developed and approved by ENSREG, the participating countries should prepare National Action Plans for improving fire protection of nuclear facilities.
Based on the results of Ukraine's participation in TPR-II, the TPR II management and representatives of the European Commission noted the significant contribution of Ukraine to the TPR II process and thanked the representatives of Ukraine for their active participation.