Meeting of Contracting Parties to Convention on Nuclear Safety

The first Review Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety is taking place over the next two weeks at the Headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

The Convention, which entered into force in October 1996, foresees such meetings at regular intervals. It provides for a "peer review" process by which national reports on nuclear safety from individual States that are Contracting Parties are submitted for collective examination by other Contracting Parties, and replies provided to questions raised.

To date the Convention has been signed by some sixty-five States and ratified by fifty.

Since the peer review process will take the full two-week period, no public statements are foreseen by participants or by the IAEA Secretariat on the content of the discussions while they are underway. At the close of the meeting, on April 23, a Summary Report of the outcome will be publicly available. A Press Conference by the Meeting's President, Mr. Lars Högberg, Director General of the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, is also tentatively scheduled at IAEA Headquarters, at 3 p.m. that day.