Towards a new international framework for nuclear safety: Developments from Fukushima to Vienna

On 11 March 2011, the nuclear safety sector was deeply shaken by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Because of this accident, 25 years of established certainties in nuclear power plant operational safety that followed the Chernobyl disaster were once again called into question. The adequacy of the international safety instruments was naturally questioned as well. The global nuclear safety framework is primarily composed of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) and the safety standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Should this accident have been an inducement for a comprehensive overhaul of the existing framework? The broader international community mobilised its resources in response to this event, reflecting the overriding importance of nuclear safety and the urgent need to learn lessons from the accident. A process of reviewing the effectiveness of the CNS thus began in April 2011 at the Fifth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention. In September 2011, the adoption of the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety encouraged the states parties to study mechanisms to enhance the effective implementation of the CNS and to consider proposals to amend the Convention. In August 2012, the Second Extraordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties allowed certain states to table amendments, thus stimulating debate but also revealing the difficulty of obtaining the majority required for such an undertaking. In order to break the impasse, an effectiveness and transparency working group was set up with the ambitious task of reporting to the Sixth Review Meeting on 'a list of actions to strengthen the CNS and on proposals to amend, where necessary, the Convention'. Since the amendment approach appeared to be a valid solution, Switzerland took the opportunity of the Sixth Review Meeting to submit a new draft to that effect. The convening of a Diplomatic Conference under Article 32 of the CNS would then allow the Swiss proposal, and any potential revisions, to be discussed in greater detail. On 9 February 2015, however, the parties were unable to agree on the amendment to the CNS, though they did come to a compromise by adopting a non-binding text by consensus, the Vienna Declaration.8 This article proposes a critical analysis of the process of enhancing the effectiveness of the Convention, beginning with a description of the new safety objectives and the associated challenges, followed by a review of the proposed Swiss amendment. The Vienna Declaration and its future prospects will then be examined. (author)