Slovenia hosts a regular meeting of the nuclear safety regulatory authorities of six European countries

Regular meetings between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia have been held for more than twenty years as so-called Quadrilateral Meetings in the framework of bilateral nuclear safety agreements concluded between them. However, in the last few years they have been expanded, with the addition of the Finnish and Polish administrations to the original participants. This year's meeting was hosted by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Authority (SNSA).

Participants exchanged information on general developments in the work of the regulatory authorities, legislation, events at nuclear installations in the past period, planned expansions of the nuclear programmes in their respective countries, views and experiences on international cooperation between regulatory authorities, and activities in EU projects to assist third countries in the field of nuclear safety.

In particular, there was an open and wide-ranging discussion among the participants on the plans or implementation of nuclear programme expansion in the participating countries, especially in terms of activities under the competence of the regulatory authorities. Although the expansion projects are at different stages in each country, all regulatory authorities face similar challenges, both in managing the safety review and licensing processes for new nuclear installations and in other areas such as ensuring an adequate pool of qualified experts. Most of the challenges are related to the introduction of new technologies and advanced reactor types, including small modular reactors, which require specific adaptations of existing regulatory frameworks to these new facilities. Participants agreed that international cooperation and the exchange of experience between countries are key to successfully addressing such future challenges.

The SNSA presented the current administrative and legislative activities related to nuclear safety, the long-term operation of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), a summary of the situation regarding the possible expansion of the nuclear programme in the country, the progress in the construction of the radioactive waste repository, and an analysis of the unplanned shutdown of the NPP in 2023 due to a leakage in the safety injection system pipeline.

The next meeting of the extended Quadrilateral will be hosted by the Czech Republic.