Experts: V. Ranguelova and L. Matteocci

2.1. REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The SNSA was established at the end of 1987 by the Act on Changes and Supplements of the Act on Organizations and Field of Activities of the Republic Regulatory Bodies, Organization and Services within the Executive Council of the Republic of Slovenia (Off. Gaz. SRS, 37/87).

According to Article 11, paragraph 6 of the 1994 Act on Organization and Field of Activities of the Ministries the scope of competence of the SNSA is defined as follows: “The Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration performs administrative and technical tasks related to nuclear and radiation safety of nuclear facilities; to trade, transport and handling of nuclear and radioactive materials; to safeguards and inventory of radioactive materials; to physical protection of nuclear materials and nuclear facilities; to liability for nuclear damage; to professional qualifications of operators of nuclear facilities and their training; to quality assurance in this field; to provision of radiation monitoring; to provision of radiation early warning system in case of nuclear or radiation accidents; to international co-operation in the field of administration and to other tasks specified by regulations; supervisions of implementation and compliance to the law, regulations and other rules governing the domain of nuclear safety.”

The mission experts were told that texts exist in the same Act determining in a similar way the competences of the other governmental bodies involved in the regulation of the peaceful use of atomic energy, as described in Section 1 of this report.

It seems that the SNSA management and staff have a clear understanding of the authorities the SNSA has been assigned by the mentioned 1994 Act and other relevant Slovenian Acts and Laws. These authorities are, in general, in good compliance with those recognized by good international practices and addressed in paragraph 206 of the IAEA Safety Requirements -Legal and Governmental Infrastructure for Nuclear, Radiation, Radioactive Waste and Transport Safety. However:

• There were some appeals against the SNSA decisions, questioning the authority of the SNSA in one or another area, based on the different interpretation of the legal text with respect to the SNSA authority and responsibility;

• There are controversial texts on classification of the ore processing plants in one document as sources of ionizing radiation and in other as nuclear facilities, which introduce certain confusion when determining the organization having authority to regulate the nuclear and radiation safety for these installations;

• The SNSA has responsibility to develop regulations and guidance, to perform inspections and enforce regulatory requirements, but has to implement provisions from acts valid for all the Slovenian Administration.

• There are some areas relating to the control of radiation protection where the respective authorities of the SNSA and Ministry of Health are not clearly defined in the legislative system.

When the country’s regulatory body consists of more than one authority, effective arrangements should be made to ensure that the responsibilities are clearly defined and co-ordinated to avoid any omission or unnecessary duplication or conflicting requirements being placed upon the operator. The new draft law should address adequately the assignment of authorities and responsibilities of all governmental bodies in Slovenia involved in the regulation of the use of nuclear energy.

See recommendations 1.4.1. (b) and (d) of this report.

2.2. RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE REGULATORY BODY

With respect to the nuclear facilities in Slovenia, the SNSA undertakes the following main responsibilities and functions:

• Development of regulations and guides;
• Review and assessment;
• Provide for issuing, amending, suspending or revoking authorizations;
• Carry out regulatory inspections;
• Take enforcement actions.

The SNSA is responsible for drafting regulations and guides in the fields of its competence. Regulations can only be put into force by the Government or Ministry.

With respect to the review and assessment function, it has to be noted that the current legislative system in Slovenia requests the applicant to present a safety case accompanied by an “independent” review with “positive results”. This review has to be done by one of the organizations authorized by the SNSA; however, the operator itself contracts and funds this review.

Due to its limited resources and capabilities in certain technical areas, the SNSA widely bases its review and assessment and decisions making activities on these independent reviews.

In a limited number of cases, a third party assessment can be organized by the SNSA and charged to the licensee. This assessment is performed anyway usually by one of the same organizations.

In order to carry out its inspection function, the SNSA uses the support of authorized organizations, mainly to observe the activities at the plant that are performed during the yearly outage. In this case, the inspection activities on the site are co-ordinated by the Milan Vidmar Institute, which reports to and is contracted by the SNSA, but isfinally paid by the operator.

The use of the so-called authorized organizations in review and assessment and inspection activities of the SNSA are also discussed in detail later in this report. The new law should ensure that any of the expert advisers (e.g. dedicated technical support organizations (TSO), consultants companies, etc.) used by the regulatory body are effectively independent of the licensee. The SNSA should be given authority, responsibility and resources to directly manage the work performed by those organizations acting as TSO to the regulatory body. Collecting licensee fees could be considered as one of the options to provide funds for such arrangements.(See recommendation (d) made on this subject in Section 1.4.).

Through the discussions the IRRT team experts had with the staff of the SNSA, it appears that the SNSA has the responsibility and is acting, generally speaking, in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 3 of the IAEA Safety Requirements “Legal and Governmental Infrastructure for Nuclear, Radiation, Radioactive Waste and Transport Safety” as related to the regulation of nuclear facilities and activities in Slovenia. It seems that the main responsibilities and functions of the SNSA are well understood by the SNSA staff members with respect to their everyday duties, but there are no well defined policies, safety principles and associated criteria on which the regulatory actions are based. It is common practice for most of the regulatory bodies, when striving for improvement of their effectiveness, to develop clear policies, objectives and strategies related to safety.

2.3. ARRANGEMENTS WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTAL BODIES

The role and responsibilities of different governmental bodies involved in the regulation of nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety in Slovenia are described in the above sections. Arrangements have been established for communication and co-operation amongst all these bodies, but due to different reasons, including the not always very clear legislative basis, and some informal practices carried over from the past, these arrangements do not seem to be very effective in all cases. It appears that even the current arrangements for co-ordinating the development of new legislation are not very effective. The SNSA is preparing a draft law on nuclear and radiation safety as well as a revision of the regulations on radiation protections based on EU Directives. The Ministry of Health is preparing a similar document on ionizing and non-ionizing radiation safety. It appears that the co-ordination of these two activities could be improved by making, where applicable, proper arrangements for feedback and exchange of information among all organizations involved in the regulatory process in Slovenia. The leading role of the SNSA in the development of the new draft law on nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety should be recognized and authority given, as appropriate.

2.4. PUBLIC INFORMATION

The SNSA has increased its activities in providing public information. Annual reports on Nuclear and Radiological Safety in Slovenia have been regularly issued since 1988. Press releases are prepared on major The SNSA licensing decisions. However, according to the SNSA staff members, the activities and responsibilities of the SNSA are in general not very well known to the public. The SNSA should ensure that its policy in relation to openness is well demonstrated to the public.

2.5. PERIODIC SAFETY REVIEW

The current legislative basis in Slovenia does not explicitly require a Periodic Safety Review (PSR) to be performed by the licensee and the SNSA has not clearly defined its requirements for such a review. Since the Krš ko NPP is facing ageing problems common for plants of this type, and that a major modernization programme including steam generators replacement and power uprating is currently being undertaken by the plant, it may be useful for the SNSA to clearly identify and communicate to the plant, well in advance, its strategy and requirements with respect to periodic safety reviews.