Nuclear Safety: Convention on Nuclear Safety Is Viewed by Most Member Countries as Strengthening Safety Worldwide
GAO-10-489
Published: Apr 29, 2010. Publicly Released: Jun 01, 2010.
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Highlights
Currently, 437 civilian nuclear power reactors are operating in 29 countries, and 56 more are under construction. After the Chernobyl accident, representatives of over 50 nations, including the United States, participated in the development of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, a treaty that seeks to promote the safety of civilian nuclear power reactors. The Convention has been in force since 1996. GAO was asked to assess (1) parties' views on the benefits and limitations of the Convention, (2) efforts to improve implementation of the Convention, and (3) how International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) programs complement the Convention's safety goals. GAO surveyed the 64 parties to the Convention for which it was in force at the time of GAO's review and analyzed the responses of the 32 that completed it, analyzed relevant documents, and interviewed U.S. and foreign officials.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of State | To further enhance the usefulness of the Convention in promoting the safety of civilian nuclear power programs worldwide, the Secretary of State should, in coordination with the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, work with other parties to the Convention to encourage parties to include performance metrics in national reports to better track safety in civilian nuclear power plants and help countries more systematically measure where and how they have made progress in improving safety. | GAO recommended that the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), work with other parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) to encourage parties to include performance metrics in national reports to better track safety in civilian nuclear power plants and help countries more systematically measure where and how they have made progress in improving safety. National reports that describe the measures the country has taken to achieve the Convention's nuclear safety goals are prepared every three years. The countries present their national reports at review meetings, address questions that may arise about the reports, and... assess and ask questions about the reports of other parties. According to State and NRC officials, and as recommended by GAO, the United States worked with other parties and submitted proposals on more than one occasion to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and all parties to the Convention to include safety performance metrics in the national reports. For example, at the 5th CNS review meeting in 2011 the United States submitted a proposal on safety performance metrics. However, the meeting occurred just weeks after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, and discussion of the accident and possible responses to it consumed all the time at the Open Ended Working Group, where such proposals to contracting parties were to be discussed. The United States did not resubmit the proposal for discussion at the 2012 Extraordinary Meeting to discuss the Fukushima accident because it was not directly relevant to Fukushima lessons learned. However, it was agreed at the 2012 Extraordinary Meeting to establish the Working Group on Effectiveness and Transparency (WGET) with the task of reporting to the next review meeting (in 2014) on a list of actions to support the Convention and on proposals to amend, where necessary, the Convention. Another country submitted a similar proposal on metrics in 2012 that also did not gain consensus. The United States participated in four WGET meetings during 2013. The NRC expected that the U.S. proposal on safety metrics would be given full consideration. However, the proposal to consider including safety performance metrics was not among the topics recommended by the WGET for discussion by the contracting parties at the 2014 review meeting. In summary, although the U.S. proposal to include performance metrics in national reports did not gain the consensus of contracting parties to the Convention in 2011, 2012, or during WGET meetings in 2013, and was not discussed at the 2014 review meeting, State and NRC did implement the recommendation to work with other parties to the Convention to encourage parties to include performance metrics in national reports.
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| Department of State | To further enhance the usefulness of the Convention in promoting the safety of civilian nuclear power programs worldwide, the Secretary of State should, in coordination with the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, work with other parties to the Convention to expand efforts to increase the number of parties' national reports made available to the public by posting them to IAEA's public Web site. | In March 2012 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials told us that the United States leads by example on this issue by always making the U.S. National Report submitted to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) for review by contracting parties at triennial review meetings available to the public on both the NRC and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Web sites. In addition, according to NRC, the United States is currently using its two leadership positions in the CNS to work with the leaders from other countries and encouraging all contracting parties to also make their reports publicly available on the IAEA web site. In addition, according to NRC officials, U.S....
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| Department of State | To further enhance the usefulness of the Convention in promoting the safety of civilian nuclear power programs worldwide, the Secretary of State should, in coordination with the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, work with other parties to the Convention to promote greater public dissemination of parties' written answers to questions about their nuclear power programs by posting this information to IAEA's public Web site. | NRC officials report that the United States leads by example by always making its written answers to questions about the U.S. National Report available to the public on the NRC and the IAEA Web sites. Similar to the process for making the National Reports available, the countries need to notify IAEA when they agree to have their answers posted on the IAEA public Web site. GAO considers this recommendation to be implemented because NRC and U.S. Department of State officials have made multiple efforts to encourage contracting parties to make as much information publicly accessible as possible, including posting written answers to questions about national reports prepared for triennial...
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