Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues Eighth National Report for the Convention on Nuclear Safety

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently published the Eighth National Report for the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), which describes the U.S. government’s actions under the convention to achieve and maintain a high level of safety for the country’s nuclear power plants.

The convention was adopted in 1996 and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1999. It establishes legally binding obligations for signatory states related to national regulation and safety at commercial nuclear power facilities.

The report describes how the United States implements a high level of nuclear safety by enhancing national measures and international cooperation and by meeting the obligations of all the articles established by the convention.

Countries that are parties to the convention meet every three years to discuss their reports. The NRC submitted the U.S. report for peer review by the other countries. NRC officials will discuss the report and respond to peer review questions at the eighth review meeting of the CNS at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria in March 2020.

The report addresses issues identified through the peer review conducted during the seventh review meeting in 2017 as well as challenges and issues that have arisen since.

The challenges for the United States identified at the seventh review meeting include establishing the acceptance criteria for plant operation beyond 60 years, clarifying backfit guidance and implementation, and ensuring continuity during the oversight transition from plant construction to operation.

Ongoing activities since 2017 covered in the report include developing and qualifying accident-tolerant fuel, emergency preparedness for small modular reactors and other nuclear technologies and changes to the Reactor Oversight Process.

The report includes a section developed by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) that describes the U.S. industry’s work to ensure safety. INPO officials will be part of the U.S. delegation to the convention review meeting.