 Good morning, everyone Welcome to the third day of the Rick the last day. This is the yesterday was the penultimate I guess this is the ultimate day of the Rick and the the panel that we've got here this morning is no need to Reinvent the wheel how countries are Considering leveraging international regulatory Experience in their licensing reviews. I'm actually I'm absolutely thrilled To be moderating this panel this morning and pleased to be joined by so many not only esteemed colleagues But also good friends In in all of our travels and work together around the world so As you've heard throughout the conference advance reactor licensing and deployment is at the forefront of NRC's activities However, we're not alone in tackling this challenge Our counterparts around the globe are asking the same questions that we are as they navigate the best way to approach These complex and multifaceted projects and we're talking Whether it's through multilateral forums or bilateral relationships Regulators recognize their experience as being integral to licensing new reactor technologies together We can all improve efficiencies in our respective licensing activities and and Illustrative example of the NRC's work in this area is our collaboration with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on Licensing small modular reactors. I should note that just on Monday. We added the United Kingdom to that arrangement as well under our memorandum of cooperation now So far the NRC and CNSC have successfully collaborated on advanced reactor topics and have issued unified positions Through a first of a through first of a kind joint reports Both regulators see an opportunity to further this collaboration effort by jointly addressing tangible regulatory issues in licensing reviews We found this interaction invaluable and I'm pleased to note that just yesterday Ramsey Jamal of the CNSC and I assigned well, I just I already said that that that we added Mark Foy to this on Monday or on Tuesday excuse me and Bring them into the fold as we add more Technical topics for joint reviews. I think is going to be absolutely Critical and I expect this to be incredibly positive as we move forward Based on the NRC's experience I firmly support close collaboration with our international counterparts and we've gathered an esteemed group as I said of colleagues and friends here to Share their perspectives first. I'm joined by Mr. Anjaye Glovatsky Since March of 2023. Mr. Glovatsky has served as the president of Poland's National Atomic Energy Agency or PAA He's worked for the PAA for more than 16 years holding such positions as vice president of PAA and director of nuclear safety and security Department he has extensive international experience representing Poland at both the NEA and the IAEA Next in a last-minute edition. I am so pleased that Mr. Leslie Enos has been able to Join us from the Ghana Nuclear Regulatory Authority He is a stress analyst at his organization. Mr. Enos is graciously stepping in Today to share his agency's perspectives and I look forward to hearing more about Ghana's plans for nuclear energy Next dr. Carlo Asia Joins us from the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute where he has served as director from Since 2017 in his capacity as the PNRI Director, he's dedicated to promoting the peaceful applications of atomic energy and Supervising the safe and responsible use of nuclear science and technology in the Philippines Prior to his appointment. He served as the director of the Philippine National Institute of Geological Sciences Next I'm joined by my good friend mr. Krister-Victorsen director general of the Federal Authority for nuclear regulation director general Victorsen has served as the head of Fanner since 2015 and I'm pleased to have served as a co-chair with him last year At the very successful international conference on effective nuclear and radiation regulatory systems in Abu Dhabi Director general Victorsen is a nuclear physicist with more than 35 years of national and international nuclear safety experience Including working at the NEA the IAEA and serving as deputy director general at the Swedish nuclear safety authority last Certainly not least We'll hear from Ms. Liddy Everard Deputy director general of the IAEA and the head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security DDG Everard started her career at the French Ministry of Energy and has worked extensively in the regulatory field over the last 25 years including positions at the industry research and environment direction of Directorate of France's Ministry of the Environment and France's nuclear safety authority where she most recently served as a commissioner With such a strong panel day I'm certain we'll have an exciting dialogue on the role that sharing international regulatory experience For licensing advanced reactors will play as we as we continue to see more advanced reactor designs develop So without further delay, I'll turn to our first panelist president Klawacki All right. Thank you chair for your kind introduction Good morning, ladies and gentlemen Um now like a little bit like a movie star in this shiny bright light I'm gonna walk you through the Our p approach to preparation for the licensing of nuclear power plants But also I'm gonna talk about how to increase regulatory effectiveness by using other Regulators experience. So let's start My presentation is divided into three parts I'm gonna give you some overview of the current status of the deployment of nuclear energy in poland and I will Give you some example how to leverage cooperation with the foreign partners and what more can be done Well on the slide, you get some information on the Major projects of the new builds in poland There is a government polish nuclear power program which envisage Two nuclear power plants with a large large light water reactors The technology for this one has been already selected in november 2022 That's gonna be westinghouse design ap 1000 There is envisage to build a second nuclear power plant under this program But the technology has not been selected yet another large program is the Based on the apr 1400 korean Design, but there is also a big great interest in smr's in poland And actually there are at least two main smr's initiatives led by the polish business And they are based on the bw rx 300 and the new scale designs Well as of today poland has zero nuclear capacity Our main nuclear facilities is research reactor maria with a thermal power of 30 megawatts Focusing on a production of radioisotopes distributed to a large number of countries in the world The second research reactor eva is under the commissioning On the material side of house we regulate over 8 000 Activities involving unit use of ionizing radiation in medicine industry and science But As you can see There is a Quiet big interest in introducing nuclear power in poland On the map you can see potential sites for the new builds and The one which is at very top of the map Close to our sea Which is called lubiatovo copalina. This site has been selected for the first npp ap 1000 design also In this gray color in the center of poland you will see the potential site for the korean technology and the The yellow orange color is the potential are the potential sites for the sms reactors Now it's a i'm going to give you a very quick overview and update of the recent developments of the government polish nuclear power program In the last year there has been several several decisions made By the regulator and the government but also by the business Or the company which is going to build the npp in last June i've issued the general opinion for the ap 1000 design Which is the pre licensing mechanism in poland to inform prospective utility On regulatory expectations and explanations of the safety requirements Based on the questions that they May ask or they may might be asked by the utility There were also some several decisions issued by other state authorities Ministry of climate and environment issue a decision in principle for the first npp That gives green light for the investment in terms of political support based on national energy and national security decision and finally The local governor of pomorsky region issued location decision for the first npp That is an administrative prerequisite for any activities on the site On the business side, uh polish utility pj polish nuclear power plant company They signed contract with the westinghausen backtell on engineering services So you can see that it is rather ambitious program in poland Also for pea to be ready for this important task Which is the licensing of the first nuclear power plant? We did a lot But we will continue and we continue to To do this in terms of our capacity building we maintain and develop cooperation with a large number of regulators around the globe and in particular taking into account reactor technologies selected for the first investment in poland We focus on extending our cooperation with the three main partners us nrc, canadian cnsc and korea nssc Together with the kins our cooperation is based on a few proven Capacity building building mechanism. It's an on-the-top training Which are the assignment of the pa safety specialist and nuclear inspector to the following foreign regulators That technical workshops focus on exchanging regulatory experience Like just this year this february we hosted nrc staff and their contractors to work with us For a couple of weeks to prepare documents, which will be used in the licensing process There is a tailored cooperation on safety assessment I would like to mention here a successful two years project with the us nrc under the umbrella of To simulate licensing process and safety review of construction application that was recognized by the irs mission as a good practice Well, I consider the on the on the job training program as a huge support In pa's capacity building effort. We launched this program in 2015 With the help of several foreign regulators gathered in regulatory cooperation forum That is an active under the IEA We have already accomplished over 40 ojts in eight countries many of them hosted by the us nrc At the ttc in chattanooga, but also as a Side visit and technical visit to the vogl 3 and 4 construction We've also started implementing ojt focus on smr licensing Uh, the assignment of our people to foreign regulators gave gave our staff a great opportunity to get hands-on experience Of regulatory work in the field of help them to prepare for performing their regulatory job when Um When we will perform our our later on reviews Well, we've joined two initiatives recently Which also give us opportunity to Be familiarized with the technologies, but also like I mentioned our Believe we believe that the the best thing what you can do preparing for the application is to Get to have a hands-on experience hands-on training to work with the documents where As a conclusion Our main challenges that we are facing is to have a Simultaneously License more than one application. That's a a big challenge our original assumption was to Have the same technology under the Polish nuclear power program Whereas right now we have like a more than four new builds projects that've been developed in Poland So we adjusted our approach and capacity building to be ready for whether lies ahead Well international cooperation, especially with the us nrc and cnsc is a crucial in our efforts to achieve full regulatory Readiness we are working to obtain good knowledge of design technologies before applications are submitted Secondly, we also review our regulatory framework and in this way we are using IEA safety guides and requirements to develop to update our current legislative framework What are the next steps? well We will continue in the intensifying current cooperation and leveraging the experience of other regulators like us nrc to use Pre-licensing period as much as possible to prepare ourselves For incoming application. We need to remember that once the application come We will on the clock. We will be on the clock, but we can somehow extend time available by Making best use of time that we have in the pre-licensing phase PE will continue join verification with other regulators on the safety of selected technical solutions in framework of the pre-licensing or Licensing as a part of the process of strengthening regulatory readiness in summary as we are also We are also starting to share our experience and knowledge with other regulators Including other embarking countries like members of the RCF. Well, finally I'm gonna touch the harmonization of the nuclear regulatory requirements and as I've mentioned our approach is that well Well, while using the IEA safety standard, we think we are in a more harmonized way and Being being ready to also Make changes in the best possible ways best practice and use best practices Which are in the in the world? Well with that, I think I'm a little bit over the time unfortunately but I want to emphasize that We are not alone in the process and like Chairman Hanson quoted The optimism Is a force multiplier and we are very looking forward to further cooperate with With the all the regulators and especially to get the best that we can take from your experience And With that, thank you very much for your attention Thank you very much President Klawacki. I really appreciate all of your remarks and the and that really Fascinating overview of the activities that are going on in in poland and next I'll I'll hand the mic over to our friend. Mr. Enos from the Ghanaian nuclear regulatory authority And we look forward to your remarks Good morning Chairman Hanson My fellow panelists ladies and gentlemen of the conference I would like to thank Chairman Hanson for giving me the opportunity to give Present Ghana's perspective on the subject at hand I am here today to replace The director of nuclear installations of the nuclear regulatory authority of Ghana Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be here today. So I'm hoping that I would help provide our perspective In a very good way. So my name is Leslie Enos and I am a stress analyst of the nuclear regulatory authority of Ghana And today's presentation, I'm going to be talking about Some few things I'm going to give a brief history of the Ghana nuclear regulatory authority Then I'm going to follow it up with a brief description of what we do and how we regulate nuclear installations and other geological facilities Then halfway around the line, I'm going to give A description of all the international corporations we have been engaging so far and some of the challenges that we have faced so the The nuclear program of Ghana Was formed by the gn ppo the gn ppo was formed by the government which constituted several institutions Some from the Various power plants companies the nuclear power institute the ghan atomic energy commission as well as the nuclear regulatory authority So at the end of the phase one program the gn ppo developed a Program comprehensive report And this was the main document we served as a decision-making Document for the government in order to show their commitments in the nuclear power program And based on this document the the president honorable akufuado In july of 2022 Made a public declaration of ghanist intentions of adding nuclear power to our energy mix Furthermore the government also developed energy transition policy Which also details the country's transition to a net serocarbon emission economy The nuclear regulatory authority was a very vital institution which was formed in the year 2016 which was mandated by The legal framework of the act Which gives us our mandate in order to regulate all nuclear facilities and regulatory facilities Okay So the nuclear regulatory authority Is guided by the nr. Act 895 and it's the authority supposed to serve as The competent authority for regulation of all nuclear illegal matters. So this scopes development of Regulations and guide management of radiative waste spent for Resulting from civilian applications ghan and also liability for nuclear damage All right, so the nr. This is a brief organogram of the nr. The nr. It has three main Branches, which is the Reliological and non analyzing directorate the nuclear installation directorate and the finance and administrative directorate So the the authority has currently 88 staff and the Most of 50 percent of the staffs came from the ghan atomic energy In the year 2060 when the nr. It was formed So like I said before so what we do is basically the same as most regulatory bodies. We try to Conduct inspections to verify compliance. We issue authorizations and And licensing we conduct enforcement duties as well regulatory research and Implementations of international obligations of ghan in the nuclear field Any activity or practices related to source of radiation? We also try to create public awareness on nuclear and radiation matters nuclear safety Community We follow the ie's general safety requirements part one and this involves these mandates as that we should have international obligations and arrangements for international corporations and assistants And also we should be able to share operating experiences and regulation experiences Among other member state countries Thank you through The work of our senior management. We have been able to Engage with other international partners and been able to sign agreements with certain member states so ghan is part of the fnrb and also Also Is receiving help from the u.s. Department of energy in the area of nuclear security and also signed an mou with the European Institutions such as the i n s e and enko and this we have with these institutions. We are benefiting from trainings and tutoring programs so Also, we have an mou with the canadian nuclear safety commission which was signed in 2019 of september And with the pakistan nuclear regulatory authority Which was also signed in december 2021 some more on the Nrc support for our nuclear program We are privileged to receive a lot of help from the us nrc and these are just a few that i would like to mention so I was part of the workshop on the overview of new rake 0800 because we were trying to Develop our standard review plan and this was held in akra between 14 to 16 december of the year 2022 and also we were also giving some ramp computer course training in april 2023 and The nrc inspector qualification and training program review took place also in may 2021 and lastly This safety evaluation reports that are available online is used as a reference also in order for us to Help us develop ours as well More on the international support Um We are having some challenges so far and just to mention a few We are having some challenges of Staff searching of staff and because it's a government organization. We need permission from the government to employ so We are hoping that the government increases our staff in order to perform our duties And also we try to ensure that there are no supporting overlaps in terms of International supports that are given to us And also we ensure that supports needed as well to let them meet specific needs of our country's requirements conclude To conclude my presentation. I would like to say that Ghana is seeking to ensure safe and secured and safeguard introduction of nuclear power and there is ongoing support from different experience regulatory bodies and We are also in particular In which partnership with the usnrc and this has been very strategic and we are hoping To looking for it to further help from the usnrc as well Thank you Thank you very much Mr. Enos and we really appreciate your uh, you're filling in here. I think with about 15 minutes notice. So, uh, really Really, there's a lot of of adaptability there and Certainly one of the other things that I think is coming up in Ghana is a Is a peer review mission To kind of review preparatory activities to regulate nuclear energy. I think coming up in 2025 and we look forward to continuing To support that With that, well, I will hand it over to uh, dr. Carlo Arcia Thank you very much. First. Thank you nrc for inviting us here So I'll this is my presentation We Have a long history of nuclear We had a trigger reactor since the late 50s and Actually, we repurposed that research for actor just recently And made the first subcritical reactor Made from previa fuel And we were the first to build a nuclear plant in the southeast asian region At westinghouse pwr But was never used just completed the fuel was outside But in 1986 two things happened Chernobyl happened and we had a leadership change And that's it. It was confined to the the bin and There are three exact models of this operating But why do we consider nuclear power now? We have very expensive electricity rates the most expensive in in asia or per capita 50 percent of our electricity comes from coal which is 90 percent imported And then 20 percent from a depleting gas field in the south china sea, which is a Hotbed of problems right now And which provide back load for international rules here is our electricity mix By the way, we are number two or number three in geothermal So our renewables is actually not bad as compared to many other countries But you can see the difficulty here 70 percent of the base load is under threat Why nuclear because The median filipino family pays more than 10 to 15 percent of take home pay. This is an oppressive rate if you compare your electricity rates and there was a survey done in 2019 that 79 percent of the population supports nuclear because of the high electricity costs We were surprised by these results The national position one of the ia 90 milestones has been signed by a president And the two precedents that we have want nuclear power the current president in this first state of the nation said we need nuclear so and As a result, there's the philippine atomic bill to create an independent regulatory authority Right now we are the regulators. I'm the head of the regulation, but we're also promotion And our problem with the researcher actors that we made a reactor and we have to license it So a clear case of conflict of interest So this is it and then it will take uh the uh The x-ray machines come from the f r r f da and that will be put into a regulatory authority called the phil atom We are following the ia a uh infrastructure guidelines We had had an inner mission and we will request for another one this year An integrated work plan was done, but was stopped by covet And we have an epio Dividing the 19 milestones in six subcommittees And these have been very active in the past two or three years And in congress actually just this week as you were here Our nuclear liability law passed the lower house and it's now in uh in the senate So we will have two bills a safety law and a nuclear liability law that hopefully will get passed this year Now people ask me can we safely host uh nuclear power plants because these are earthquakes Of course small ones and included many earthquakes. This is a volcanic eruption in tal and uh two years ago So we have many disasters in the philippines We have the most typhoons in the world volcanoes tsunami earthquakes floods landslides and uh Ha Anyway, so when people ask me about safety my answer to that is If nucleus and say why does america have nearly 100 nuclear plants supplying 20 percent of electricity and operating to close 60 years So we rely on the american experience 80 years total and we can learn many things from american nuclear 60 years of safe and clean nuclear operations privately owned The nuclear plants in the philippines will be privately owned And we can adopt safety and technical findings. I'm learning a lot from this conference And from productive private government initiatives ppp's so And train future manpower. I owe my train to the us. I'm a full bright scholar. I did my master's and doctorate here Thank you. And then but I also tutored Black and hispanic kids in chicago. I'm proud of those I tutored there now productive citizens Here is our president Meeting with us nuclear cooperation nuclear cooperation. Yeah, and then the with the small modular or micro modular plants Our president is technical. I was impressed by his questioning and then so so The insight we gained from the experience regulators the separation of the promotional body which has also happened in the us we that's really important and We adopt and establish regulations and standards for citing licensing relation protection standards and we want to learn more And on the dub train. These are the strategies that we want training course and workshops technical assistances And oh anyway the challenges considerations one when we created the There are pushbacks from interfering government regulations some government regular Regulators don't want to surrender their turf And then there are also some as I said the oligarchs And the politicians though the those are the real disasters by the way the rest you can live with, you know So challenges to regulatory independence Disperse of overlapping irregular coverages For example, there was an attempt to introduce commercial policy into safety law And we were saying that you know, we had a low review by the IEA But some power of policies and up to now are trying to insert this and Fortunately, they will be defeated The nuclear safety law was voted 200 versus seven. So And how do you fund an independent regulatory body without yearly congressional budgetary approval? Because you can be held hostage by congressmen who want the nuclear plant approved in their and the jurisdiction So And we have to integrate into nuclear law the updated conventions and nuclear. I'm very proud to say that the csc Convention for supplementary compensation is well integrated due to our nuclear liability law Which is being discussed in the past this year Then how do you select the regulators? That's why I was very curious how the regulators are selected technical versus legal background in our law It says there that the regulators have to have technical background No lawyers. I mean you can have a law degree if you have a scientific background Anyway I will have lawyer jokes. I can tell you in the break So future prospects are this. So, thank you very much for listening Thank you very very much. Dr. Asiya We do have both technical people and lawyers in the nrc. We benefit from both I personally hardly ever travel without a lawyer So, please let me hand over the microphone now to my good friend krister victorsen So, thank you Thank you chris and Good morning to everyone. It's a pleasure to be here And to addressing this particular rick I think these are Liddy's slides We're gonna switch the slides Addressing the The changing landscapes in the world So I have chosen to Title my presentation to Fanner, which is the federal authority for nuclear regulation in the ui Which is the nuclear regulatory authority And as my friend from philippines mentioned we were created in 2009 And we do have a or live in a very changing landscape. So let me quickly Take you through some of the historical points that we have faced and the successes that we have made And If you could take the next slide, please Yes, he's coming so This is a picture With the four nuclear power plants that now are In in operation So the first one went into operation in commercial operation in 21 The second one in 22 the third one in 23 And the fourth one we gave the operating license in november last year and they are now In the startup phase went critical and in a few Few weeks, I believe they will connect to the grid and then commercial operation later this this year And So this has This site it was a beach a beautiful beach when I went there the first time in 2009 And now it's completely different a small city With a lot of infrastructure That is needed for a nuclear power plant So it's a it's a major project And the interesting thing is that Fanner and ennec which is the emirate nuclear energy corporation That is the developer And it's an abadabi government entity. We are a federal entity. There is a difference between the two And so we were established at the same time in 2009 We were sitting in the same building only a small wall was separated me And mohammed hamadi who is the ceo of ennec So this was the I think the start of the creation of a good safety culture Because we had the same goal. We said let's establish this this power program As a As a model for the world Using the the milestone approach of the ia So it was Sort of Built during the same time as the milestone approach was created Um, so we had this we worked on the same timeline Both of us so we knew when Ennec needed a certain Regulation because there were no regulation in place. We had to start from scratch With the regulation Anyway, um It's a long story and there is many interesting topics to be covered. But the first License application we got in december 2010 So between 2009 and december 2010 we work We worked on a sort of pre licensing concept We knew which reactor would be chosen because the the reactor was chosen. The contract was signed already in december 2009 And today we have the full infrastructure with all covering all the 19 element of the ia milestone document Next slide, please So this is fanner Some some numbers that Shows what where we are today. We are 255 Stuff We have the responsibility not only barraca. We have we are regulating all the medical and industrial use of radiation We have security aspects, of course and safeguards So all these nuclear aspects we are in charge of we started to be a completely Foreign expert driven organization Today we are an emirati led organization And the number of emiratis are 74 And two of them are here with me Um, so this is the two you see in the in in this the same box. I say 74 They are with me. So rashid is not dressed in in white candora today and mira Who normally is in black abaya? In in when they work So they are with me and they have been with us about 10 years And they have today they are today two of the many Influencers I would say in fanner impacting the organization Mira is inspector has been A resident inspector in barraca And fanner um rashid is the manager of international cooperation So i'm very proud of you So we have had very successful emiratization program. So i'm very confident that The the nationals in the ua Will shoulder the the responsibility for safety security and safeguards in an excellent way We have a lot of females we have 44 percent Of females it and this has come naturally because in the ua the majority Of the stem students are females. So it's it's it has been a natural evolution Um, we have a very young population. We are 60 percent are below 35 The the use is is defined as between 18 and and and 35 Uh, we have many in leader leadership positions 80 percent are that's why I said Emirati led organization Next slide please So we we knew we do have now all the Reactors in operation. So it's we we have switched from licensing into consti Into operational oversight And then of course as you all realize safety culture is an important aspect Of of of the operation. So I have we have been active in in internationally You heard yesterday in one of the sessions about the NEA working group on leadership and safety culture. We have been there We have created an internal safety culture working group Um, we had an IEA mission in in september to teach us about how to do a Self-assessment of the internal safety culture Which we will do next year probably and I announced in november last year that 2024 will be a year of safety culture at fanner Which will influence our own Program and our own inspectors particularly focus on on the inspectors the resident inspectors have Do have an important influence on the safety culture of the operator in particular Next slide, please I will be quick. So we will Also focus our oversight activities on safety culture not only of course But we will include an element of safety culture in most of the inspections that we are doing Next one, please So Another change Is the cop 28 So on the 2nd of december last year in dubai 22 heads of states Came physically to dubai To sign the tripling A declaration of nuclear energy by 2050 in the in the perspective of the climate change On this opportunity. We also had a workshop with the IEA With wmo and with presence of edf on on On the resilience of nuclear power plant For challenges caused by by climate change So we have officially launched and working Now on a transformational project, which we call integrated operational nuclear safety. I can talk more about it later Next slide, please We had a another important event that I would like to point to Namely the regulatory conference And the regulatory conference agreed on four themes And and these themes are not Only for fanner. It's for all regulators. So I We worked together with with nrc chairman gris To to make sure that we have a follow-up and make sure that Regulators really commit and take actions In in these four areas and we are certainly doing doing it in inside fanner Next one, please Um, so based on this cop 28 signal, we realize that more nuclear will come Uh, we don't know no decision has been made in the UAE But we we expect and as we have heard during this conference, we need to be ready as regulators So we have created the task force. We we call it fanner gross to study the consequences of of additional Big reactors and smrs And this is just some information about the and the last landslide is next one Talking about the The changing regulatory landscape So many of us have many of my colleagues have mentioned this Leveraging the resources and we certainly did that when we When we started licensing of of baraka These are korean apr 1400 reactors They there was a reference plant in korea Built and operated Licensed the reactor was licensed by nrc Before system 80 plus of combustion engineering. It was licensed by kins So we said in fanner, why should we redo everything? There is no reason we trust what what nrc did and we trust what kins did of course we had we reviewed exactly what they did So we this allowed us to focus on specific UAE Factors like it like the weather environment Etc and on the organizational setup on on the topics that we were we were responsible ourselves Um, so also an second message is that there is a big contract with contrast between being a regulator with operational oversight And licensing This is you have in operational oversight. You need to be ready. You have to have the the full oversight or full Infrastructure in place and you need to be ready to act 24 7 and we have experienced that at fanner Many weekends we have worked And this this this is a must And we are adhering to the recommendations from the reg conference And we make sure that we have the highest standard for safety security Of and safeguards under this tripling and this needs some additional also international cooperation So, um, I would really urge the international regulatory community to work together In order to challenge or to face all the challenges of the tripling Initiative. Thank you very much Thank you very much director general victorsen for your presentation and I I would note that there even I think some really leading edge Things going on in the UAE with regard to regulation. For instance, you're Dedicated cyber security incident response center and I believe there's a director for innovation In your organization now that even as you're building this capability You're also leaning forward and and looking at changes as well. So thank you very much And next I'd like to hand over the the microphone to director deputy director general liddy everard. Thank you Thank you very much chris. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's my great pleasure to address you today at the week And I will give you an overview of the AA activities to support regulatory infrastructure and SMR safety first the AAE Established in 1957 As a 178 And works under the motto atoms for peace and development The mission of the department of nuclear safety and security is to provide a strong and sustainable global nuclear safety and security frameworks with the development of safety standards The provision of peer reviews for their application and the implementation of legal instruments such as the convention on nuclear safety The agency is highly committed to building national capabilities in the nuclear safety, especially for embarking countries the AA develops a series of Safety standards that serve as a global reference for member states and for protecting people and the environment And they contribute to harmonize the high level of safety worldwide to date 34 safety standards have been published and the 100 and sorry and the 36 are under development There are three levels of safety standards safety fundamentals with the one safety objective which is on the slide And that states that this fundamental safety objective is to protect people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing Regition and then there are other levels of safety requirements and safety guides The IA Supports its member states via safety review services in which member states practices are compared with these international safety standards in 2023 the agency conducted over 60 safety related peer reviews And advisory missions and as you can see there are many different reviews for instance on regulatory Infrastructure such as our submissions on operational safety or that missions on long-term operation safety so salto but also on the topical you know matters such as safety of research reactor or safety of fuel full cycle facilities the global nuclear safety and security networks so the g nnssn Is a web platform Whose missions comprise three elements first sharing knowledge experience and lessons learned Supporting interactions and collaboration amongst member states and the supporting capacity building The gnssn includes 20 networks in total that include regional and topical networks the regulatory cooperation forum so rcf Facilitates collaboration between member states with established nuclear power programs and member states Embarking or expanding on such on such programs The rcf has contributed to multiple instances of bilateral assistance Including engagement between the u.s. And Poland and activities of the european commission in africa So this slide is you know Directly linked to the topic of the rig so that's interesting to have this kind of connection That means that it's really you know A major topic for all of us So how are we preparing for the future in 2023? We Held this regulatory conference Which is on the slide and as you already mentioned so the environment we are working in is always evolving Which impacts the role of regulators The past few years a few years have brought several examples the global pandemic of course Emerging new technologies or ensuring nuclear safety and security In during armed conflicts. So this is a few examples that illustrate What we need to address and usually in a kind of Yes, and unpredictable conditions In 2023 with this international conference in Abu Dhabi Regulators shared their experience Particularly with regard to building resilience and agility to respond to new challenges. Thank you very much again to you Chehansen and to Kiss the victorsome for for serving as president and vice president Thank you to the united arab Emirates for hosting this conference Which was a very successful conference with more than 600 participants and this very clear call for actions This is the next step. I think a conference is an important step. But the follow-up actions are Equally, you know important Now moving on to the agency activities and smr's In 2022 the agency completed an extensive review of the applicability of the safety standards to smr's And this review of applicability is guiding us For preparing our plan for the future and how to address safety-related matters for smr's in 2022 the director general of the IAEA launched a new initiative called Nessie for that stands for nuclear harmonization and standardization initiative With the objective to achieve progress towards harmonization of regulatory approaches and standardization of designs And thereby facilitating the safe and secure deployment of smr's Nessie has two tracks one on industrial matters and another one on regulatory matters Regarding the regulatory track. There are three working groups dealing with how to share information Second how to develop a multi national pre licensing joint review process And third how to develop best practices for regulators to work together on ongoing Regulatory reviews as you can see from the map There is a broad participation from several member states throughout the world Regarding Nessie timeline We are currently finalizing the first phase of Nessie And we are preparing for the next steps to be discussed at the plenary meeting of Nessie to be held in october this year in in vienna Our long-term aspiration is to develop a common review framework. And this is really our main objective We plan to continue to enhance processes for regulators to leverage and learn from past reviews thereby saving resources While still maintaining a high level of safety and allowing regulators to maintain their sovereignty in decision-making International cooperation Also provides a foundation for addressing global challenges Including in unprecedented conditions. I would like to give two examples first on the assistance to ukraine Since february 2022 the agency has been provided support to ukraine with regard to the safety and security of its facilities And with the main objective of preventing a nuclear accident in ukraine In particular, we have deployed a continuous presence of the agency in ukraine. We have delivered Equipment safety and security rated equipment to ukraine Thanks to a strong support from member states. And I would like to thank very much the us Who is one of the major Supporters for this comprehensive program of assistance to ukraine We also develop and this is the second completely different of cross examples. We develop some support and assistance ad hoc support to member states with the first of a kind of facilities for instance We are working with finland for the deep geological Repository and we were working on a peer review to address operational safety of such a facility So in conclusion, uh, the agency will continue to support member states for knowledge and experience sharing to build On the existing wells of knowledge to remain proactive and flexible in responding to the diversity of member states needs And to contribute to strengthening safety and security worldwide in this rapidly changing environment I agree that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. This is a topic of this session But there is a clear need to sink outside the box To find innovative ways of us performing our mission In order to be more effective and more efficient in addressing new challenges. Thank you very much Thank you litty for that and particularly that that last Bullet in the in the closing sentiment. I uh, couldn't agree more obviously well, let's uh, let's get into some questions here, um, and uh, and and and have a bit of a dialogue I'd like to start off with Um, I think this is a question for poland and and our friends from gana and the philippines really about How is your country Planning to leverage licensing reviews and data from vendor countries in your review process And I think this could be a question as as well for um, for fanner in order to talk about, you know, pre existing reviews on the apr 1400 and other thinking about how If new technologies are going to be deployed in the ua e as well And what do you think are the greatest challenges to accepting information from another country in your national review process? You can go first Thank you very much. Sure Well, uh, thank you for this question. Actually, we are currently working on this Since the ap 1000 was the first NPP, which is going to build in poland and it all already has been licensed in us. It has already been built constructed and is in the operation so The our approach is that we don't want to like Also, like funner Don't want it to review all the technical informations from the beginning We wanted to take the The benefit of the of the work and the assessment which has been done in us and To take some of those to our review. There are some legal challenges, of course to to On to what extent we can we can use this kind of information, but for sure The aspects which are quite general we're gonna Take them into The our review and our assessment We're gonna focus on the site specifics. We're gonna focus on the Our environmental specific issues. There are some differences in requirements and this is what I wanted to emphasize so The biggest challenge is make sure that you understand what was the The design basis. What was the legal basis in the country of origin? Versus what is in your country? Against what kind of requirements the design was verified In the country of origin because if that the requirements Well, if they match And you verify you understand that they are matching You are on the safe side, but if If and you do not understand and you will take the review As it is not understanding what were the requirements in the country of origin you may have some Troubles, so we are currently doing this. So we are verifying and Using the time with what we have which we have right now to compare also the requirements in us and in poland to be Knowledgeable enough That we can assure then when we will get the application we will be knowing which kind of Documents reviews we are able to accept so I'm Going to live with that and give a floor to the next Regarding the question the in our current law that will be approved soon There's a provision that If a technology has been licensed In another country with a credible background that we can consider that So to shorten the licensing And I think this is especially important for smr's the Philippines is interested in smr's because we have 7 000 islands And the most expensive power are those not connected to the grid And so but the problem with the smr's is that there are 100 designs They're mostly power points. We need power plants So You we need that something is operating Because it's the only way that you can check Anybody can sell anything You know, so there's no first of a kind. I mean you guys won't buy a first of a kind car What more for a nuclear power plant? Thank you Thank you Yeah, please Yes, a few comments from from from fanner So first on the new technology Yes, we have to prepare to be ready to to review A new technology whether it's a light water reactor or a small modular reactor or other types of of new technology And on the question of there there are 80 or 90 different design That's true But you can also if you work with the industry You can you can screen all these design I mean we have done it and we are down to five or six Of in which could be of interest And I think that is one aspect and then we studied those And studied the country of origin who are the The sort of vendors of these types of reactors And make sure that we understand their regulatory system On the acceptability of the country of origin reviews It's it's an important topic to to to discuss and reflect on and we are trying to To work in the NC in in this initiative that was mentioned from the IEA Nuclear safety and harmonization nuclear harmonization and standardization initiative In working group three There is a particular effort to to to document how How and Yes, how you can accept this type of reviews by other regulators First of all you need to understand their safety philosophy You need to understand their regulatory System and you need to understand the operating experience I think the reference plant concept is a very very important concept to keep in mind if you want to be Effective and efficient and use that And then But there will always be differences between the reference plant and the plant that you will get Because of local conditions you have to adapt We have many many such differences So we asked from the from ennec from the applicant to develop what we call a departure report Which is a gap analysis Between or the difference the differences between the shin korea plant in korea and the baraka design There were differences in cooling systems because of the temperature environmental conditions There were differences in in the frequency of the electricity We have difference national systems and all these things needs to be very clear So those are the focus of the regulatory attention So once you understand this I think It's it's easier to to accept We had also second e from kins sitting in our office For for for many years to help us to understand the korea regulatory system We will follow the same methodology for any new nuclear power program whether it's smr's or light water reactors Of a big size. Thank you Thank you very much Would you like to jump in on mr anus? Okay, so um, I would just like to say that in perspective of Ghana We right from the beginning of developing regulations and guides. We are encouraged to Not do anything in isolation. We try to Look at specific from other countries and what they are Requirements are like so everything is everything is developed with Information from other countries. We take all those things into consideration and All our regulations and documents are being reviewed through Other organizations international organizations, which where they try to Incorporate new technologies and we try to consider The new technologies which are coming up in our regulations as well And the last lastly we Some challenges that we are facing is a physically inexperienced, but we have a very strong human Human competency developed planes plan which is currently ongoing and most of our staff have received From level one to level four of this training and More support from other international organizations is being provided to us in order to make us Prepared for our review and assessment process Thank you Thank you Deputy director general everard. I wanted to ask a kind of follow-up question Director general victorson raised Nessie and working group three and as we were having this conversation. I was curious about how The particular instances of frameworks and countries adopting Other reviews is kind of being generalized and elevated At that higher level and certainly Director general victorson kind of touched on that, but I wondered if you'd like to expand on it a bit Thank you. Thank you very much for these Questions or nessie. It's a new approach for the agency and I think for many member states because We are considering different approaches at national level or at regional level because there are some initiatives So the u.s. Canada In europe as well. So we observe that there are Already some ongoing work how to learn from other Experiences and how to leverage, you know, this lessons learned for the benefit of a greater Efficiency of course, but In addition to avoid duplication because we can observe that there are similarities, of course in Through these different initiatives and we may have some benefit from capitalizing This new this experience experience in new Designs. So this is really the concept of nessie After two years now, we have learned a lot including Regarding the Definition of the objective and really Now I think it's a clearer that the objective is to facilitate the safe and secure secure deployment of smr So it's not only how to deploy smr's, but how to make it As safe and secure as possible and there is a wealth of knowledge throughout the world and nessie is really aimed at capitalizing, you know, these great experience and then putting this experience at the level of At the global level so that many member states can benefit from this experience even if member states needs Are very different. We have Countries with Very developed nuclear programs, but we have member states That would like to use smr's for domestic needs and there are They are starting from scratch. So we are trying to Have this international Cooperation as a first Demultiplier as we mentioned on the Tuesday and this is really, you know, this objective Thank you I've got a number of questions from the audience So I'm gonna start to to go to those and the first one that I have here is for director general victorson and you know I think There's a question here that I think was drilling into maybe some of the lessons that you've learned as standing up an entire regulatory body while You know while safely licensing and overseeing the construction and so forth and and Particularly are there lessons that maybe haven't gotten as much attention, but that you thought were really Contributed to your Success Yes, certainly there are We were in a particular situation As we have heard From this panel my colleagues in the panel there are Already programs Or regulators Existing in the UAE. We didn't have anything of that So this is a difference. So we started really from scratch So the approach was recruit experienced foreigners To establish the regulator But this was not fast enough We couldn't do it fast enough to to cover the capacity and capabilities So we contracted technical support organizations To us based and one european based and divided the psar the application chapters And distributed to them and we Our expats That we hired they led they were project managers And they led the tso's and made sure that That we got the results that we needed according to our Our own regulations So we needed to provide hundreds of detailed instructions to the tso's So it was a significant work to do in order to lead them And and the people we recruited they were knowledgeable to make the decisions So we made our own decisions. We were a small organization, but we relied on external organizations We used a lot of IEA support I should mention that the first in your mission We had in 2011 Where they checked that we have programs ongoing to cover all the infrastructure elements So we we needed security. We needed off-site emergency. We needed safeguards And many other organizations are involved in this security organizations customs for export import control Etc. Etc. Environment etc So and then the first irrs in 2012 And quite early stage But this was in relation to our issuance of the construction license We issued the first construction license in july 2012 It was a little bit delayed because of the Fukushima accident So we had to factor in so we we sort of stopped and post And join ensreg approach in europe And and made sure we understood how they did this In in in the european countries And we used the same methodology identified the cliff edge effects And in in various types and then we were done by that By july 2012 And then we could issue the construction license for unit one We have also another concept which i didn't mention before something called international advisory board So the government of Abu Dhabi set up Something called an international advisory board with high level Experienced policy makers And nuclear professionals from a number of countries. It was led by previous IEA director general hans blicks They were representatives from france from us From korea From japan From all over the world with with experience and they they were very challenging They came twice a year twice a year and asked a report not only fanner They asked enek. They asked califa university on the on the capacity building side Asked the other authorities to come and report. What is the progress you have made? And and gave us advice if you are interesting to follow this work They published very transparent reports on the internet So you can international advisory board of the UAE you can find all all their reports And it gives you the history of of our development This was a very useful concept which gives us support It gives the international community confidence that we were developing the program peacefully And in line with highest standards of safety security and safeguards Thank you. No, that's fascinating and I think there are a number of good points I'd like to pick up on just one and I want to ask some of our other colleagues about the use of tso's and how In in each of you know, your unique context how you're approaching the issue Of the use of a tso and and kind of what the status of those agreements Are You can go first again All right. Thank you so much. Um, well Since we don't have a poland don't have a An experience in licensing nuclear power plant yet Then we did not create any Unified tso for regulatory authority in poland. We rather Wanted to use different organizations different institutions to On different disciplines That we will that they will help us reviewing the documentation and There is a mechanism in poland Which is called the authorization for the tso This is a kind of a mechanism to to pre pre verify the The institution the which Has to have enough competence but also to avoid the conflict of interest and this is a this is a mechanism we we use Up to now and so we've as a as a regulatory authority. We've kind of a selected the This topics which we will Ask for the technical External support and the competencies we do not be able to build In house these are some sightings site specifics There are some competencies in the site examination, but also the review of a safety assessment safety analysis The biggest challenge Which I see and we are working on that currently is that According to our polish law, we got 24 months To review the documentation when the application will come And you can imagine that With this kind of system of technical support organizations, you have to we have to go through the Public procurement process, which probably in some of the countries At least in our country. It may take time so we wanted to Kind of Also take this time before the application will come to prepare an agreement with those Institutes those institutions, which can help us with the technical analysis being ready before the application will come and mechanism We have some ideas which kind of mechanism we can use But it's a it's a like a big challenge and advice if if you guys Trying to use this kind of system Make sure that when When the application will come you will have a direct path to the institute you choose That they can help you Thanks Would anyone else like to tackle that? Okay, fair enough One of the questions that I've got here on the ipad actually has to do with how are the countries in this group Actually helping other countries. So for instance you know Our friends in poland and gana and the philippines you all have taken significant steps to Prepare to regulate nuclear energy How are your phones ringing from other countries who might be learned might be ready to learn From where you are on that on that journey Yeah, please dr. Asya yeah The philippines is part of the acyan Acyan is the largest acclomeration of countries about 600 million people with known nuclear power And it's one of the richest two per capita that includes indonesia thailand vietnam philippines and and then differing Different levels of economic development But we have a group called acyan tom which is the association of Regulators and we meet yearly And believe me in that meeting there's an exchange who's Who's going to be the first and it looks like the philippines is going to be the first But i'll i'll i'll say this one member Singapore for example actually very interesting. Singapore has not ruled out nuclear power But they said since you are so small They cannot afford a nuclear accident And so what they did is they put up a nuclear safety research institute Inside the university and its only job is to vet existing technologies You say We have to choose the safest and they're willing to share and they've shared especially vendor characteristics and You know a vendor vendors are like car salesman. They promise you everything, you know and And so it's good to among countries to see you know What what are they offering you and then so for the realistic and and we will be doing that We are doing that now in the in the acyan. Thank you. Yeah, thank you Mr. Enos are you is the is the is the phone ringing in in gana from from neighboring countries about your journey on to to nuclear safety regulation Yes, yes, so In relation in relation to gana We we we have come quite a long way in the nuclear power program. We are currently in the phase two so We through the we are gana is one of the founding members for the forum for nuclear regulatory authorities in africa so The they are two currently senior management's Acquiring positions in that form where they extend Their expertise to other african countries like kengya, nigiri and morocco so In this way, we're trying to leverage The opportunities in order to also give other helping hands to other african countries Yeah, good. Thank you. Yes, please Yes, thank you. So there is one topic that I think is very very essential. That is the Regulation So you are immediately faced with what type of regulations design, sighting, etc So our approach was to rely on IAEA safety requirements Which are I would characterize them as Risk informed performance based And of course you have to so we adopted essentially them Not Word by word We changed some aspects that were needed to be changed Because of local conditions It can Security guidance is one example And also design we are now refined Revising the design Regulations Based on new revision of IAEA, but also Because we might get new New applications to site power plants in the UE And we need to factor in The climate change aspect Because we need to recognize that nuclear facility It will stay there for one century 100 years And many things Can happen around us Because of the climate change Which we might need to Think about when we site a new a new nuclear facility So this is an important consideration that we will include now In the new revised regulations And we have recently updated the regulations on On leadership And management for safety And included Requirements for the licensee To make sure that on their highest level They consider safety We had recently an inspection in for now led by Mira by the way On the integrated management system of the operator Including the safety culture because IMS sets the basis for a good say strong safety culture And They looked at documents from the board They interviewed the top management of the utility The CEO, the CNO, etc And try to see Are there anything that Are Are against the spirit of safety culture Do they have a questioning attitude Do they have employee concern programs for example In the utility Another topic is the peer review services We have benefited a lot from IEA peer review services We have done 12 or 13 I don't know Almost all of them And all have given us very valuable advice So I'm grateful. Thank you for the IEA to To keep this going We are a member of RCF by the way too And we have many requests To To meet with other Embarking countries in order to learn from the experience of UAE and Fanner And we are willing to do that One of the principles of the UAE government is transparency So we are we are willing to share But we try to go through as much as possible through IEA Through the various documents and conferences and share our knowledge Thank you Thank you President Klawacki or Deputy Director General Enverd would you Would you have anything you'd like to add Well I wanted to emphasize this RCF initiative actually Which we are also a part of And we're ready to share our experience Well surprisingly There are some I see some faces from the European regulators who approach me Sometime Because well We got some knowledge some experience in preparing for the licensing the new reactors, especially SMRs and and We are ready to to share this kind of experience one thing I wanted to also add is that please Document the work that you have done To share then the experience that you get gained Yeah, just a few words to Maybe follow up on what I just was mentioned on the the services provided by the agency So the range of activities is very wide, but we are continuing You know expanding the possibilities with ad hoc services and we will Continue like this so that we remain very proactive flexible and In order to meet member states New expectations and need and of course so with this objective of maintaining Very high level of safety and security worldwide through this Expand sharing and how to facilitate the support we can provide to each member states Considering their specific expectations and needs Thank you Well, we have just about come to the end of our time together As I said in my speech on tuesday, I think there's too much work Around the world for all of us to accomplish and tackle alone particularly as regulatory bodies and it's a great pleasure for me to have Close friends and collaborators like those on this stage. So please join me in giving them a round of applause and thanks for their participation Thank you all so much for joining us this morning now if this wasn't enough Light and optimism And forward thinking for you. Let me put in just a small plug for one of the sessions is coming up next It's called nuke kids on the block, which I think is incredibly clever It is moderated by the nrc's own moranda ross a recent graduate of our nuclear regulator apprenticeship network and is also going to be featuring A meter a meter e from fanner, and I think it'll be a great panel And again if this wasn't a shot in the arm enough that panel definitely will be so thank you all very much