IAEA creates Europe and Central Asia safety network

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has established a new network to help strengthen nuclear and radiation safety in Europe and Central Asia by facilitating dialogue and knowledge exchange between Member States in these regions. The European and Central Asian Safety Network (EuCAS Network) brings together 20 Member States and 22 organisations with a responsibility for nuclear safety.

The EuCAS network was formally established during an event on the side-lines of IAEA's 60th General Conference in September. It operates within the framework of the Global Nuclear Safety and Security Network.

"The Europe and Central Asia region has a dense concentration of countries […] and the largest number of nuclear power plants," Juan Carlos Lentijo, IAEA deputy director-general and head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, said in an IAEA statement today.

The EuCAS Network is initially envisaged to address the management of radioactive waste resulting from nuclear power plants and other nuclear applications, the IAEA said. Preparatory work has also identified environmental remediation and the decommissioning of power and research reactors as "very relevant areas" for its future activities, it added.

Countries that have joined the EuCAS Network so far are Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Tajikistan.

The network also brings together national organisations with advanced expertise in safety and with an international reach, Lentijo noted. He stressed the important role of the European Union in the Western part of the EuCAS Network with its almost 60 years of experience in implementing the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, also known as the Euratom Treaty.

"The EuCAS Network does not start on a blank page. Many nuclear safety-related multilateral initiatives, groups, forums and international projects have already been developed," he said.

EuCAS' steering committee will hold its first meeting from 7 to 9 December to formally adopt the network's terms of reference. It will also designate a chairperson, identify a number of working groups and decide on a work plan for 2017.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News