Mandate
In the autumn of 2024, ENSREG agreed to set up a group with the task of conducting a reflection on nuclear safety in the context of armed conflicts. While the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is an obvious background, the aim of the Reflection group is to address the issue of maintaining nuclear safety during an armed conflict on a general level.
It is aiming to develop common guidance on the subject, suitable for application in a European context. This work is ongoing by attempting to generalise the experience from Ukraine while also considering information from several important on-going national and international initiatives dealing with maintaining nuclear safety during an armed conflict (including The IAEA's Seven Indispensable Pillars).
The scope of the reflections includes maintaining nuclear safety and preventing nuclear incidents and accidents in the context of an armed conflict – including in conditions where energy production at an NPP needs to continue during an armed conflict, due to its importance to the national energy system.
Main Tasks & Activities
The group’s tasks focus on: :
- maintaining nuclear safety and safe spent fuel management,
- prevention of nuclear incidents/accidents in a war situation,
- restart of nuclear installations after the war.
Thus, the purpose of the ongoing reflection is to issue a final report that will provide ENSREG members with a structure for identifying and defining the necessary activities on a national level to maintain nuclear safety in the context of an armed conflict.
The guidance document will identify and present, on a generalized level, the lowest common denominators, in nations with nuclear power plants, for setting the conditions for maintaining nuclear safety and safe spent fuel management and for preventing nuclear incidents and accidents during an armed conflict.
While having nuclear safety as their main focus, the reflections will also consider nuclear security. This is due to the direct relation between nuclear safety and security in connection with an armed conflict.
The scope also includes considerations related to maintaining nuclear safety in conditions where energy production at an NPP continues during an armed conflict, e.g. due to its importance to the national energy system.
Membership and operation
The reflection group has been chaired b by the Director-General, Mr Michael Knochenhauer of the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, and included experts from six more member states: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain and the European Commission.