Slovenia’s response in wake of Japanese nuclear accident praised by UN
United Nations atomic experts today commended Slovenia’s regulatory framework for nuclear safety, citing its prompt reaction to the implications of the accident and radiation release at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant earlier this year.
At the same time the international team of senior experts, sent by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the request of the Slovenian Government, identified areas for improvement, including development of a coordinated plan to ensure appropriate infrastructure is in place and measures for the timely disposal of radioactive waste.
The IAEA assembled a team of 10 senior regulatory experts from nine nations to conduct the 10-day Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission for what Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) Director Andrej Stritar called the important task of ensuring that a small country like his own tightly follows international standards for nuclear safety.
The team said Slovenia showed a “prompt and effective” response to the Fukushima accident when a tsunami in March knocked out water cooling systems, contaminating air, water, plants and animals with radioactive plumes dozens of kilometres from the site, and threatening a total meltdown of the fuel rods in the worst civilian nuclear crisis since the deadly Chernobyl power plant explosion in the then Soviet Union 25 years ago.
“Communications with the public, development of actions for improvement within the Slovenian nuclear industry and coordination with international stakeholders was considered effective,” it added, noting that further lessons learned will also need to be adequately addressed.
Among SNSA’s other strengths, the team cited the effective process it has in place to regulate its nuclear safety programme and its quality management system, which will be able to improve its regulatory effectiveness.
IRRS missions are designed to strengthen the effectiveness of national nuclear regulatory systems, while recognizing the ultimate responsibility of each State to ensure safety, by comparing regulatory, technical and policy issues against IAEA safety standards and good practices elsewhere.
Last month IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano pledged to play a central role in restoring public faith in nuclear power after the Fukushima accident, which is projected to slow the growth in the use of such electricity generating reactors.