The first meeting of the Management Board of the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) was held via videoconference on January 13, 2022. 

The meeting was attended by representatives of the regulatory authorities of Argentina, China, Finland, Hungary, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Turkey, and the UK, as well as William D. Magwood, IV, Director-General of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD NEA) and NEA staff members. 

Alexey Ferapontov, Deputy Chairman of Rostechnadzor, was elected chair of the Management Board. Tapani Virolainen, Deputy Director for New Reactors Projects at STUK, became vice-chair. 

The members of the Management Board approved the terms of reference for the implementation of MDEP and the terms of reference of the design specific and issue specific working groups. The participants of the meeting also confirmed their readiness to hold the MDEP Conference on November 14-15, 2022 in China and agreed on this year’s program of preparation for the Conference. 

Since 2013 SEC NRS has been participating in VVER-WG and its expert subgroups.

The meeting opened a new stage in the MDEP activities after the completion of the work of some of the working groups and the transition of the Programme to a new organizational format. In the near future, MDEP will continue to work within the framework of two working groups on Russian VVER and Chinese HPR1000 reactors. The Management Board will be responsible for overall coordination of MDEP, including interaction with the working groups and organization of special events. The OECD NEA will continue to perform the functions of technical secretariat. 

The MDEP was established in 2006 to analyze regulatory approaches to reviewing nuclear and radiation safety documents and identify mutually acceptable regulatory practices for further use in reviewing new reactor designs.