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Report of the Nuclear Safety and Security Group, G8 Summit, June 6 - 8, 2007

G8 Summit 2007, Heiligendamm.

Report of the Nuclear Safety and Security Group

At the Kananaskis Summit, the G8 Leaders agreed to establish a G8 Nuclear Safety and Security Group (NSSG). The NSSG, responsible to Leaders, will, according to its mandate, provide technically informed, strategic policy advice on issues that could impact safety and security in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, in close cooperation with multilateral organizations and avoiding duplication of tasks or responsibilities that are being addressed adequately by existing organizations or entities.

We are committed to continue to consider nuclear safety and security issues in the Nuclear Safety and Security Group. We will continue to develop a common approach to selected nuclear safety and radiation protection issues and their regulation, by

• Sharing our experience feedback and our vision;
• Developing a common understanding of internationally acceptable safety and security levels in the fields of nuclear installations, radioactive sources, decommissioning, radioactive waste and spent fuel management facilities in order to benchmark our national practices.

Importance of Nuclear Safety and Security

The G8 are committed to the "nuclear safety first" principle, to recognised international accepted principles and best practices and to the highest level of standards in nuclear safety and security. We recognise the international conventions and IAEA standards form a good basis for the continuous improvement of national nuclear regulatory systems and nuclear safety as necessary. It is our common interest to maintain and if necessary to improve nuclear safety, radiation safety, waste management, nuclear security and nuclear liability in our respective countries, and we call upon all other States to do the same.

Nuclear Regulatory Infrastructure

In view of the continuous safety and security challenges, we will continue to support measures to promote nuclear (safety and security) regulatory best practices.

We stress the need for effective national regulatory infrastructures, in particular the importance for national regulatory bodies to have sufficient authority, effective independence, competence and adequate resources.

The G8 have made use or intend to make use of the IAEA "Integrated Regulatory Review Services" to review and further improve their national regulatory bodies.

National Nuclear Safety and Security Infrastructure and Partnerships

We will promote strong and competent national nuclear safety and security infrastructure. We recall that the nations forming the G8 have initiated and monitored major national and international programs to address nuclear safety and security needs and to establish partnership relations on these issues. We welcome continued cooperation with relevant international organizations active in this area. Priority actions are:

• Use of the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management for open and critical peer review and a source for learning about the best safety practices of others;
• Promote utilization of IAEA Safety Standards for the modernisation of national safety regulations, to the extent feasible;
• Promote exchange of operation experience for improving operating and regulatory practices; and
• Multinational cooperation in the safety review of nuclear power plant designs.

The full implementation of international conventions on nuclear safety and security, the commitment to promote nuclear safety standards and security guidelines as well as the increased use of integrated review services are important prerequisites for the world's community to establish a global nuclear safety and security partnership. We call upon all states to join, as appropriate, and implement the respective international instruments.

Chernobyl Commitments

We reaffirm our commitments under former G7 / G8 summit declarations and memoranda of understanding - to undertake joint efforts with Ukraine to convert the damaged reactor unit site into safe conditions and to make available safe and reliable facilities at Chernobyl NPP site necessary for a safe decommissioning of the shut down reactor units. We urge the Government of Ukraine in collaboration with EBRD, to take all necessary measures to assist in timely and efficient implementation of these programmes and projects within the agreed frameworks.

Nuclear Safety of NPP Medzamor, Armenia

We urge Armenia to undertake further upgrades necessary to ensure that NPP Medzamor can operate in a safe manner until it can be shut down and decommissioned.

Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources

We will continue to support international efforts to enhance controls on radioactive sources. We welcome the fact that more than 88 countries have committed to implement the IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and urge all other states to adopt the code. We further note that to date 38 countries have committed to act in a harmonized manner in accordance with the IAEA Guidance on the Import and Export of Radioactive Sources, and we encourage all states to support international activities aimed to harmonizing the implementation of provisions of the guidance.

Global Nuclear Safety Network

We will continue to strengthen the Global Nuclear Safety and Security Partnership. We will support the further enhancement of the evolving web-based systems and networks for information exchange and co-operation in nuclear safety matters, as implementation of nuclear conventions, co-operation on safety standards, and harmonization of safety approaches, exchange of operational experience and resolution of generic nuclear safety issues. This evolving global nuclear safety network is based on considerable work of international organizations in particular the IAEA and OECDNEA. It will substantially contribute to maintain competence and to continuously develop effective protection against nuclear hazards. We note the efforts for the collection and dissemination of regulatory information, actions, initiatives and lessons learned as an appropriate means to strengthen the effectiveness of national nuclear safety and security regulators.

Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response

At previous summits, we agreed to enhance global controls on nuclear and radioactive materials and facilities in order to minimize the risk of the malicious use of these materials and facilities. We are implementing those decisions. However, we recognize that we must also enhance as necessary our ability to effectively respond to nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents if they do occur. We welcome the establishment of the IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre and will support the IAEA in this work.

Source: G8 Summit website, http://www.g-8.de/Content/EN/Artikel/__g8-summit/2007-06-07-summit-documents.html

© 2007 The Acronym Institute.