IRRS Workshop summary

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An international workshop was held on the 22nd and 23rd March 2007 in Paris to draw the lessons learnt from the full scope IRRS mission (Integrated Regulatory Review Service) of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), carried out in November 2006 under the coordination of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

IRRS mission in France


The IRRS mission of ASN was carried out from 5 to 17 November 2006. This was the first full scope IRRS worldwide for a country with an important nuclear program. Furthermore, ASN requested the IRRS team to review its arrangements concerning the public information.

16 international Experts were involved in this mission under the coordination of 6 IAEA Experts. In addition, two foreigners observed the process in order to learn lessons for a future IRRS mission in their own country.

IAEA – ASN IRRS


Workshop The purpose of this workshop was to share experiences from the 2006 missions, especially the mission carried out in France in November 2006, and to provide information to the Member States interested by this service. During two days, presentations, covering the IRRS objectives, the procedures, arrangements and the possible IRRS follow-ups missions, fed numerous and fruitful discussions and debates between the 83 attendees.

Mr. Lacoste, the ASN Chairman, opened the workshop and opening remarks were made by Mr. Taniguchi, Deputy Director General of IAEA.[encadre]35 countries attended the workshop: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italia, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam as well as Experts from IAEA.[/encadre]

The IRRS Concept


The first part of this workshop was devoted to the presentation by IAEA representatives of the IRRS concept based on the modular approach and the IRRS programme including self assessment, preparatory meetings, selection of team leaders and team members from Regulatory Bodies, conduct of the IRRS missions, preparation of the reports and follow-up missions.

IRRS missions 2006


This IAEA presentation was complemented by a session dedicated to presenting the results achieved by the 2006 IRSS missions. The presenters were Romania, United Kingdom and France. On this occasion, discussions took place about the scope of the mission. The British Regulatory Body, HSE/NII, chose to receive a reduced scope IRRS mission. HSE / NII considers the reduced scope approach to be the most useful format for the review taking account of the size of the regulatory body and the resources available to implement the action plan. On the other hand, ASN considers the full scope approach is an opportunity to rationalise the IRRS findings by considering the regulatory body in its entirety therefore facilitating the identification of generic issues. By the way, all three presenters agreed that IRRS is constructive, informative and a key tool for their continuous improvement strategy whatever the scope of the mission.

Lessons learnt


The second part of the workshop focussed on the lessons learnt from the missions carried out in France in November 2006 and, to a lesser extent, in UK in April 2006.

Several areas for improvements have been identified concerning the preparation and development of these missions. To gain a maximum benefit from an IRRS mission, the presentations stressed the importance of :

  • size of the mission scope which need to be tailored to the human resources the Regulatory Body can devote to the IRRS mission;
  • organisation of the mission, especially the agenda which is an obvious element for the efficiency of an IRRS mission, given the number of people involved particularly for a full scope mission, and the last-day meetings which are key meetings for the conclusions of the missions;
  • self-assessment which provides the international experts with materials for preparing their investigation and gives to the Regulatory Body staff members a good knowledge of IAEA standards;
  • staff involvement: an IRRS mission is an occasion to develop a continuous improvement atmosphere among the Regulatory Body staff; and
  • Openness and transparency of the Regulatory Body.

The workshop was an occasion for the Regulators, who will receive soon an IRRS mission, to avail themselves of the experience gained by their Peers. Furthermore, during the second day, they had the opportunity to present their expectations of an IRRS mission, including their willingness to enhance their own organisation and practices, then to strengthen safety regulations in their country, and to share regulatory experiences with senior regulators.

Outlook


The last session of the workshop was devoted to the future of the IRRS programme and to several areas for improvement which have been identified concerning the preparation and implementation of these missions. For example, public information needs to be better considered in the future. The current review of the IRRS guidelines will take account of these improvements regarding both the Regulatory Bodies and the IRRS mission. Finally, to maximize the efficiency of future IRRS missions, the establishment of a network of IRRS Experts from different countries was mentioned. This should ease the organisation of the forthcomings IRRS missions, including the setting up of the expert teams.

Conclusions IRRS missions: a key tool to enhance the Regulatory Body performances


André-Claude Lacoste, the ASN Chairman, closed the workshop. He emphasized the importance of IRRS missions as a key tool to enhance the Regulatory Body performances and therefore nuclear safety and radiation protection worldwide. He also highlighted :

  • the flexibility of IRRS missions due to the modular approach adopted to develop the concept;
  • the important workload for the IRRS team Experts and for the Regulatory Body audited; and
  • the sustainability of the IRRS process, which requests a real involvement of the Regulatory Bodies in this process. The creation of an Expert network would help to support the IRRS programme.

He concluded that the first IRRS missions across the world will be the start of a positive process for nuclear and radiation safety worldwide.Several Member States have already applied for an IRRS mission. Mr. Lacoste underlined the beneficial contribution of IRRS towards the harmonisation of international approaches and practices in nuclear and radiation safety areas.

Appendix - Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS)


IAEA draws up international standards and guides regarding nuclear and radiation safety and promotes their implementation by the Member States. In this respect, on request, IAEA offers national Regulatory Bodies a service, so-called Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS), to assess the extent to which the aforesaid standards and guides are implemented. This service provides advices accordingly to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of the Member State regulatory infrastructure.

IRSS is constructed in modular form. The modules are for instance: legislative and governmental responsibilities; organisation, responsibilities and function of regulatory body; authorization process or Inspection and enforcement. Therefore, Regulatory Bodies can request either a reduced scope mission to review a few modules or a full scope mission i.e. taking into account all modules and covering all activities regulated by the Regulatory Body.

The overall IRRS approach includes three stages:

  1. A self-assessment conducted by the Member States, which will receive the IRRS mission, as regards IAEA safety standards
  2. An IRRS mission itself to review organisation and practice of the State by considering the results of the self-assessment and actions planned. IRRS are carried out by international Experts from other countries, from other Regulatory Bodies, under the coordination of IAEA experts;
  3. 18-24 months after the IRRS mission, a follow-up mission to review the implementation of the actions.