Mumbai, Nov 17: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday said safety and security of nuclear power plants should be given top priority.

As lot of new entrants are opting for nuclear power, it was important to have strong and independent national regulatory bodies, a top IAEA official said here.

The regulatory bodies should have independence so that safety regulations are carried out independently and free from undue pressure from any interested party, Deputy Director General of IAEA T Taniguchi said here.

However, he said, regulatory independence is an evolutionary process and it was important to achieve strong safety management culture.

This is applicable to the countries with existing nuclear power plants as well as the new entrants and those countries who go for nuclear renaissance, Taniguchi said in his presidential address at the International conference on 'Topical Issues in Nuclear Installation Safety: Ensuring safety for sustainable nuclear development'.

While the Chairman of French Nuclear Safety Authority A C Lacoste said nuclear safety is a "national responsibility" and ca be achieved through experience and sharing knowledge at bilateral and multilateral meetings.

In France, the regulatory body was set up 35 years ago and was de facto independent, he said adding but only in 2006 we got full independence, after 33 years.

Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is 25 years old and step by step it could achieve complete Independence soon, Lacoste added.

Taniguchi said internationally there was lot of expectations from the public domain about the safety and security of the nuclear installations with possible terror attacks and accidents.

Therefore, there was a need for continued international cooperation, especially support for new entrants in building actual capacity and expertise to prevent serious accidents, Taniguchi said.

The importance of national and international safety infrastructures is in order to mitigate the impacts of accidents should they occur, he said.

In his keynote address, J Laaksonen from Finalnd pointed out the important role of regulatory bodies in upkeeping the safety.

He said with the expanding nuclear programme, even the vendors have to be screened thoroughly. Vendors may be having competence but with long chain of sub-contracting, there could be some major issues related to safety, he said.

Even those countries who were experienced in buying from vendors till 1970s may have to rethink when it comes to safety and security. This he said after the long delays and problems Finland experienced in building its first EPR-1600 Mw reactor which is under construction.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar said it was important to take note of large-scale expansion of new technologies and new dimensions of managing large number of reactors of different varieties.

Bureau Report