Convention on Nuclear Safety - Archives

The Government of India ratified the Convention on Nuclear Safety on March 31, 2005. The Objectives of the Convention are to achieve and maintain a high level of nuclear safety worldwide, to establish and maintain effective defenses in nuclear installations against potential radiological hazards, in order to protect individuals, society and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation from such installations; and to prevent accidents with radiological consequences and to mitigate such consequences, should they occur.

The Convention places certain obligations on the States operating nuclear power plants. The obligations are based on the principles contained in the IAEA Safety Fundamentals document "Fundamental Safety Principles (SF-1)" and cover for instance, siting, design, construction, operation, the availability of adequate financial and human resources, the assessment and verification of safety, quality assurance and emergency preparedness.

The Convention has a peer review process, wherein the Contracting Parties are required to submit national reports on the implementation of their obligations for "peer review" at the meetings of the Contracting Parties, to be held at the IAEA. These review meetings are held once every three years. The national reports are to be prepared following specified guidelines and should be submitted about nine months ahead of the Review Meeting, for review by other Contracting Parties. Based review, questions are posed on the national reports by other Contracting Parties, for which the answers are to be provided within the specified deadline before the Review Meetings. Further, the Contracting Parties are required to present their own national reports and also peer review the national reports of other Contracting Parties, during the Review Meeting, which extends over two weeks. Based on the peer review, a Country Review Report is prepared (introduced for the first time in the 7^th Review Meeting), which is further considered in the Plenary session of the Review Meeting for preparation of the Summary Report of the Review Meeting. As per the guidelines and rules of the Convention, the Summary Reports of the review meetings are publicly available. Making the other reports of the Convention pertaining to the respective countries public is the prerogative of the individual governments.

India submitted its first national report for the Convention for the 4th Review Meeting in 2008. Subsequently national reports were submitted for the 5th Review meeting (held in 2011), 6th Review Meeting (held in 2014), 7th Review Meeting (held in 2017), 8th Review Cycle (national report submitted in 2019; the Review Meeting was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic) and Joint 8th and 9th Review Meeting (held in 2023). Apart from these India also submitted a national report for the 2nd Extra-ordinary meeting held in August 2012.

Eighth Review Cycle of Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS)

The 8^th Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, was planned to be held from March 23, 2020 to April 3, 2020. However, the Review Meeting could not be held as per the schedule due to the preventive measures and travel curbs worldwide on account of Covid-19 pandemic. It was proposed by the Presidency of CNS to hold a Joint 8^th & 9^thReview meeting in March 2023. The proposal was concurred by all Contracting Parties.

India submitted its first national report for the Convention for the 4th Review Meeting in 2008. Subsequently national reports were submitted for the 5th Review meeting (held in 2011), 6th Review Meeting (held in 2014), 7th Review Meeting (held in 2017), 8th Review Cycle (national report submitted in 2019; the Review Meeting was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic) and Joint 8th and 9th Review Meeting (held in 2023). Apart from these India also submitted a national report for the 2nd Extra-ordinary meeting held in August 2012.

National Report

Questions and Answers to National Report of India for 8th Review Cycle

Seventh Review Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) during 27 March to 7 April 2017

Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety

India Supports the International Initiative to enhance Nuclear Safety

A five member Delegation from India led by Shri R. Bhattacharya, Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) represented India in the Diplomatic Conference of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), held at International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on February 9 2015. The Indian delegation supported the consensus on the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety. The Declaration seeks to achieve significant safety enhancements in the nuclear power plants all over the world, both new as well as the existing ones. 71 countries attended the conference of the 77 member states.

The Vienna Declaration is part of an ongoing international effort to strengthen nuclear safety, subsequent to the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, was approved by consensus of all the Contracting Parties to the CNS at the Diplomatic Conference. The Conference was called to consider a proposal by Switzerland to amend a part of the text of the CNS. Swiss proposal for Amendment of Article 18 of CNS was not approved, however a consensus document was adopted by the participating countries.

The Declaration calls for enhancements in the design, siting and construction of nuclear power plants, with the objectives of preventing accidents as well as mitigating possible radioactivity releases, should an accident occur and avoiding early and large radioactivity releases. It also calls for systematic and periodic safety assessments of existing plants, throughout its lifetime, for implementing reasonably practical safety enhancements. These principles are being integrated in the review process of the CNS with immediate effect, with the requirement of reporting on the measures by the individual Contracting Parties and its peer review, from the next CNS Review Meeting in 2017.

This declaration comes on the back of extensive discussions extending over many weeks and months, among the Contracting Parties of the CNS, on the issue of voting on a proposal for change in the text of CNS vis-à-vis a consensus. Right from the time the proposal for amending the text of the CNS was mooted, India has been expressing the view that the CNS processes have enough in-built mechanisms to keep the Convention up to date and contemporary without necessarily going in for any amendment to the text of the Convention. In fact soon after the 2 ndExtraordinary Meeting of CNS in 2012, AERB has started the work of reviewing the regulatory requirements for the nuclear power plants, in the light of the lessons from the Fukushima accident.The new Codes issued recently by AERB, for ‘Siting of Nuclear Facilities’ and ‘Design of LWR based NPPs’ incorporate the requirements arising out of the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident. The regulatory practices of AERB, with the enhanced safety requirements would help enormously in addressing the objectives of the present Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety.

In its statement to the Diplomatic Conference, the Indian Delegation extended its full support to the approval of the Declaration by consensus and highlighted the efforts it has taken to enhance safety of the nuclear power plants in India.

Sixth Review Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) during 24 March – 4 April, 2014

Second Extraordinary Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) during 27 to 31 August 2012

Fifth Review Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) during April 4 -14, 2011

Fourth Review Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) during April 14 -28, 2008

The first National Report of India was submitted for review by the Contracting Parties to the Convention on 24th September 2007. On India’s national report, 20 Contracting Parties asked 143 questions. The responses to these questions were posted well before the stipulated last date March of 31, 2008. Sixty questions / comments were raised by India on the national reports of 12 countries.

The 4th review meeting of CNS was held in April 2008 in Vienna. The Indian delegation to the review meeting comprised of experts from AERB, NPCIL and BARC and was led by Chairman, AERB. In the review meeting, the national report was orally presented, after which there was a discussion on the presentation. The contracting parties appreciated the effective regulatory review structure, the strong R & D support available for nuclear safety from BARC and IGGAR and the excellent safety status of nuclear power plants in India. They also commended the several good safety practices like strong experience feedback review mechanism, utility’s internal safety review mechanism and systematic collective radiation dose reduction programme that are followed in India. India also mentioned the planned measures to improve safety like extended work on probabilistic safety analysis, development of severe accident management guidelines for nuclear power plants and technology improvements in areas like en-masse replacement of coolant channels in Naraora-2 and Kakrapar-2 reactors, life management of Zr-Nb coolant channels, primary heat transport system feeders and flow assisted corrosion of secondary systems piping. Future challenges were identified in the areas of recruitment and training of additional experts to strengthen AERB, Licensing of new designs for upcoming plants, reliability of digital I&C for safety functions and reliability of passive safety systems.

Highlights on India's Participation in 4th Review Meeting

National Report

Summary Report of the 4th Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties of CNS

The mission of the AERB is to ensure the use of ionising radiation and nuclear energy in India does not cause undue risk to the health of people and the environment.

Convention on Nuclear Safety - Archives

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