30 August 2013, Vienna – United Arab Emirates has submitted its 3rd National Report in preparation for to the upcoming Review Meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) to be held in March/April 2014, in Vienna, Austria.
The UAE Government prepared the national report in fulfilment of Article 5 of the Convention on Nuclear Safety to be assessed on compliance with the obligations of the Convention by Contracting Parties during the upcoming Review Meeting.
The UAE’s 1st National Report was presented to the 5th CNS Review Meeting in April 2011, which focused on policy decisions and the measures taken to launch the UAE’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.
The UAE has also submitted an additional National Report in relation to the CNS Extraordinary Meeting held in August 2012 focusing on Fukushima lessons learned.
Since the 5th Review Meeting, the UAE nuclear programme made a significant progress with the start of the construction of its first two nuclear reactors at Barakah site, Western Region of Abu Dhabi.
In the course of this progress in the UAE’s national nuclear energy programme, the third National Report presents a major milestones accomplished within the programme in the areas of safety assessment of the UAE nuclear facility, lessons learnt from Fukushima Daiichi accident and applied in safety design of UAE’s nuclear plants, progress made in national capacity building as well as efforts made in the development of effective emergency preparedness and response.
The National Report also outlines actions taken in response to recommendations made during the 5th Review Meeting with respect to human resources development; building and maintaining a culture of safety; and development of approaches to emergency planning and response, which were highlighted as the most significant matters to be addressed by UAE.
Background
The Convention on Nuclear Safety was adopted in Vienna on 17 June 1994. Its aim is to legally commit participating States operating land-based nuclear power plants to maintain a high level of safety by setting international benchmarks to which States would subscribe.
The obligations of the Parties are based to a large extent on the principles contained in the IAEA Safety Fundamentals document "Fundamental Safety Principles." These obligations cover for instance, siting, design, construction, operation, the availability of adequate financial and human resources, the assessment and verification of safety, quality assurance and emergency preparedness.
The Convention obliges Parties to submit reports on the implementation of their obligations for "peer review" at meetings of the Parties to be held at the IAEA.
This mechanism is the main innovative and dynamic element of the Convention. There are currently 76 Parties to the Convention. United Arab Emirates has been a Party since 2009.
Full text of all UAE National Reports to the CNS Meetings are available on UAE Permanent Mission’s website.
