A press conference will be held on Monday, April 11, at 12.00 noon at the Vienna International Centre, Press Briefing Room C03, following the opening of the Third Review Meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, to outline how the global treaty is maintaining nuclear power plant safety.
The 10 year old Convention is the international treaty that commits participating States to maintain a high level of safety in the operation and regulation of nuclear power plants. Parties to the Convention meet every three years to peer review their national nuclear safety programmes.
Representatives from 38 of the 65 signatory countries to the Convention will attend the review meeting, the third since the Convention entered into force in 1996. The Convention is a response to international concerns over nuclear safety that evolved during the late 1970s and 1980s. Its catalyst was the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
The Review Meeting´s President, Linda Keen, head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, said the States meeting in Vienna were collectively committed to maintaining high safety standards.
This month India became the latest country to ratify the pact, bringing the number of ratifying countries to 56. Most of the world´s 441 nuclear power plants are operating in countries where the Nuclear Safety Convention is in force.
The Third Review Meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety lasts until April 22. The meeting will be closed to the press.