State Office for Nuclear Safety publishes the closing report of Phase 2 of the NUWARD Joint Early Review (JER). SÚJB participated in this phase together with the regulatory authorities of France (ASNR), Finland (STUK), Sweden (SSM), the Netherlands (ANVS) and Poland (PAA). This international cooperation focuses on a joint early-stage review of the NUWARD SMR design and on sharing regulatory approaches at an early stage of development.
Phase 2 expanded scope of participating countries and included the completion of the review of additional key safety areas, and the transfer of regulatory experience to new members. The regulators jointly assessed, in particular, strategies for managing design extension conditions, approaches to containment performance and leak-tightness assessments, methods for evaluating radiological consequences, the approach to criticality risk management, and the design and implementation of electrical systems and instrumentation and control (I&C) systems.
This phase likewise involved the participation of the technology vendor, which enabled a detailed assessment of the technological aspects of selected parts of the proposed design and further examination of how differing regulatory approaches may affect the final reactor design and the associated safety demonstration.The results confirmed that joint work among regulators improves the efficiency of information exchange, accelerates the identification of technical differences, and enables key safety issues to be addressed earlier than would be possible within separate national licensing processes. The JER thus strengthens the preparedness of participating countries for future SMR licensing and creates space for further harmonisation of regulatory approaches in Europe.
SÚJB is now working with its partners on preparing Phase 3 of the project, which will focus on additional advanced technical areas essential for assessing the NUWARD SMR design.