The Russian invasion is affecting the lives and safety of people in Ukraine on many levels. With the capture of the nuclear power plant sites at Chernobyl - which is now back under Ukrainian control - and Zaporizhia, nuclear facilities have also been included in the hostilities and have therefore increasingly become the focus of public attention. GRS has been in close professional contact with Ukrainian partner organisations for decades, whereby the security of the facilties, i.e. their physical protection, also plays a role. On behalf of the Federal Foreign Office, GRS is working with Ukrainian and national partners to implement specific measures that contribute to improving the security of the facilities there. 

VUJE delivered the severe accident management workplace for Mochovce 1,2 full scope simulator and continues in new simulation model integration.

A total amount of 135 M€ has been allocated for the years 2024-2026 by the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security to revamp the national R&D program in the nuclear field. Within nuclear fission R&D, the priority and focus topics are SMRs and AMRs.

In 2023 company VUJE together with Italian company DESPE (as a leader) was awarded by European Commission - Joint Research Centre in Ispra with the Contract for providing Decommissioning services and related supplies for the JRC Decommissioning & Waste Management Programme.

As part of its longstanding cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the European Technical Safety Organisation Network (ETSON) took the opportunity to hold a side event at the 68th IAEA General Conference which took place from September 16 to September 20 in Vienna, Austria. To inform and engage with representatives of the IAEA and its member states, ETSON President Jean-Christophe Niel (IRSN), ETSON Vice President Michel Van haesendonck and other experts of ETSON members highlighted recent and ongoing activities of the network.

ETSON is delighted to announce that the Practical Agreement between ETSON and IAEA was renewed by an exchange of letters between ETSON’s President and IAEA’s Deputy Director General L. Evrard, until September 2027.

The year 2023 has seen various significant events that have undeniably influenced the nuclear field and impacted the ETSON activities, also on a global scale.

Find out more about ETSON´s organisation, activities and external relations in 2023 in our annual report.

From June 12 to June 14, IRSN hosted meetings of the ETSON Board and the General Assembly in Cadarache, France.

Over the past years, an increasing number of EU member states have expressed great interest in the development and deployment of small modular reactors (SMR) with a view to reduce their future CO2-emissions, in some cases including the allocation of specific programmes and budgets and even concrete plans for SMR build.

More than 30 pressurised water reactors of the Russian or Soviet VVER (water-water-energy reactor) type are currently in operation in Eastern and Central Europe, and several new plants are under construction. Mochovce-3, for example, started commercial operation in Slovakia in October 2023. Not least the war in Ukraine and the fact that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (NPP) became the theatre of war have shown that technical knowledge about this type of plant is still needed in Germany too, e.g. to be able to assess any risks. Experts at GRS are therefore involved in numerous research projects on VVER reactors, including international ones.