At the 57th meeting of the IAEA’s Commission on Safety Standards, which took place in Vienna from 19 to 23 May 2025 under the chairmanship of ENSI Director Marc Kenzelmann, all 26 member countries approved the strategic development of the IAEA Safety Standards. The “Long-term Plan” helps to ensure that the IAEA Safety Standards remain appropriate and effective in a dynamic environment and includes the following points, among others:
- Review and, if necessary, revision of the Safety Fundamentals
- Optimisation of the development and revision process for safety standards
- Ensuring a balanced and efficient scope of safety standards, including:
- Review of safety standards with a focus on technology neutrality and an appropriate level of detail
- Elimination of duplication (e.g. by taking into account feedback from the application of safety standards in IAEA missions, in particular IRRS missions)
- Promote the use of other IAEA document series specifically for rapidly evolving areas (e.g. Artificial Intelligence)
- Optimisation of the interfaces between safety and security
- Increased cooperation with other international organisations in the development of safety standards
Work is now underway to develop a concrete implementation plan, known as «a Roadmap», for the coming years. An initial draft is expected to be presented to the CSS at the spring meeting in 2026.
«I am very pleased that this long-term strategy for the further development of safety standards has been adopted», says Marc Kenzelmann, Director of ENSI and Chairman of the IAEA’s Commission on Safety Standards (CSS) for the period 2024 to 2027. «This plan was approved by consensus by all 26 countries, and it will therefore certainly make a further major contribution to strengthening the safety of nuclear facilities worldwide. »
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