Meeting of the Forum of WWER regulators

Delegation of the BNRA, led by Dr. Sergey Tzotchev, the chairman of BNRA, took part in the 17^th Annual Meeting of the Forum of the State Nuclear Safety Authorities of the countries operating WWER type reactors. The meeting was held in Balatonfüred, Hungary, from 15^th to 17^th June 2010. Hungary took over the chairmanship of the Forum in Bulgaria in July 2009.

Delegations of 11 countries, which are operating WWER or plan to operate WWER power units took part in the sessions: Armenia, Bulgaria, India, Iran, China, Russian Federation, Finland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Czech Republic. Representatives from the IAEA and representatives from the technical support organization to the German regulatory body GRS – Germany were invited as observers.

At the meeting were presented state reports on the condition of nuclear safety in the national nuclear facilities during the past year, as well as reports of the working groups that deal with the issues of organization, management and safety culture of NPP and the use of PSA in regulatory practice.

The chairmanship informed that Turkey has the intention to apply for membership in the WWER Forum. It is expected that Turkey will start negotiations about its membership with the next chairmanship, Slovakia.