Considering that the national safety regulators, in the light of their experience and their practical knowledge of the installations, are better placed than the European Commission to set the technical rules applicable to the nuclear installations in Europe, WENRA defined as its primary mission the voluntary harmonisation of the national regulations of its members, aiming for the highest level of safety that is reasonably achievable. To achieve this, WENRA developed “safety reference levels” for each technical topic, based on the most recent IAEA Safety Standards. Subject to peer review, the WENRA members then examine whether these reference levels are indeed included in the regulations of their country, and modify them if not. Work has also been started to compare the procedures for actually implementing these reference levels in the nuclear installations. To do this, WENRA draws on three working groups, each with competence in a field of nuclear safety: ∙ the Reactor Harmonisation Working Group (RHWG); ∙ the Working Group on Radioactive Waste and Decommissioning (WGWD); ∙ the Working Group on Research Reactors (WGRR). The work done by WENRA in 2023 led to a number of significant advances, in particular: ∙ approval of the association’s new strategy, taking account of the new international context and its nuclear challenges. WENRA thus decided to give priority to (i) establishing common safety requirements to be applied by each member on high-stakes subjects, (ii) establishing and adopting best practices in terms of regulatory cooperation for the evaluation of new technologies and (iii) drafting common positions on high-stakes subjects; ∙ confirmation of the need to revise the safety objectives currently applicable to the new reactors, in order to take account of the case of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs); ∙ publication of recommendations for the surveillance, detection and processing of the stress corrosion phenomenon that can affect welds on the stainless steel lines of pressurised water reactor primary systems; WENRA plenary meeting in Montrouge – November 2023 During the plenary meeting in November 2023, WENRA approved the appointment of Mark Foy, Executive Director and Senior nuclear inspector of the United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), and current Vice-President of WENRA, as the new President of the association. He thus replaces Olivier Gupta, ASN Director General, who occupied this position since 2019 and who becomes one of the two Vice-presidents, with the second one still being Petteri Tiippana, Director General of the Finnish nuclear safety regulator (Säteilyturvakeskus – STUK). This change in presidency was an opportunity for the members of the association to highlight a number of achievements over the period 2019-2023, in particular regarding the work to update the Safety Reference Levels (SRLs) and harmonise the regulatory frameworks of WENRA’s members, the publication of several joint positions on high-stakes subjects, the clarification of criteria for the expansion of WENRA, WENRA’s actions to support Ukraine, the increase in WENRA’s visibility both within and outside Europe, as well as the adoption of a new strategy taking account of the new international nuclear context. CHANGE IN PRESIDENCY AT THE HEAD OF WENRA Handover of the presidency of WENRA from Olivier Gupta (ASN) to Mark Foy (ONR) ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 195 • 06 • International relations 06 05 15 08 11 04 14 07 13 AP 03 10 02 09 12 01
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