LES ACTIVITÉS NUCLÉAIRES : RAYONNEMENTS IONISANTS ET RISQUES POUR LA SANTÉ ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT 6 – Standardisation and international cooperation goals Despite the already high level of harmonisation of the safety standards of the IAEA and the Europe-wide objectives and safety reference levels adopted by WENRA each project to build a new reactor model in a country generally leads to the design being adapted to comply with the national regulations and the specific requirements of the local licensee (notably the organisation envisaged for routine operations, but also for management of emergency situations, jointly with the local public authorities). The economic model of SMRs is based on mass production to reduce costs through economies of scale. The project developers thus aim to have a single model authorised in several countries. In order to facilitate the development of these new small reactors capable of contributing to decarbonisation of the global economy, a number of international initiatives are emerging. The IAEA is mobilising its members through the Nuclear Harmonization and Standardisation Initiative (NHSI) aiming to develop and encourage international cooperation modes for, notably, joint early reviews of a given reactor model by several safety regulators, or to enable a country to benefit from the evaluations already performed by other countries, in order to potentially reduce its own review workload. ASNR is also initiating a Joint Early Review (JER) of the Nuward reactor. The second phase of this review involved the nuclear safety Authorities of Finland (STUK), the Czech Republic (SUJB), the Netherlands (ANVS), Poland (PAA) and Sweden (SSM). The conclusions of this second phase were published in a joint report in December 2025 (see highlight 1). In view of the interest and success of this cooperation, a third phase has been initiated with the additional participation of the Belgian safety Authority (AFCN) and the Italian safety Authority (ISIN) as observers. With respect to the European safety regulators, WENRA issued a position statement in 2021 on the fact that the safety goals set in 2010 for any new reactor remain applicable to SMRs, but considered them to be a minimum level of requirement. WENRA considered that higher safety requirements should be taken into account, particularly when considering the potential of these modern technologies to bring about significant improvements in nuclear safety. Based on this observation, WENRA then set up a Working Group (WG) to draft proposed revisions to these safety goals. Within this WG, with the backing of other safety regulators, ASNR supported the position presented to OPECST in January 2024, that is that the siting envisaged by the nuclear industry close to densely populated urban areas or industrial zones could only be envisaged if a higher level of safety is achieved, guaranteeing that any radiological releases would remain negligible in the event of an accident, including the most severe. Discussions are continuing because, at this stage, it has not been possible to reach a consensus at European level on the possible revision of safety targets. Launch of the second phase of the Joint Early Review on ASNR premises on 14 November 2023. HIGHLIGHT No.1 Conclusions and lessons learned from phase 2 of the Joint Early Review of the SMR Nuward In December 2025, ASNR published the lessons learned from phase 2 of the review conducted jointly with its Dutch (ANVS), Polish (PAA), Swedish (SSM), Finnish (STUK) and Czech (SUJB) counterparts on the safety options for the Nuward SMR reactor project, developed by an EDF subsidiary. This joint assessment, initiated by ASNR, was carried out as part of the second phase of the Joint Early Review (JER), the initial conclusions of which were published in September 2023. This second phase has built on the successes of the pilot phase – in particular the review of a specific project and the establishment of a direct dialogue with the designer – while evolving to meet new challenges, in particular wider participation. During this new phase, the scope of the assessment was extended to include new technical topics, in particular containment barriers, assessment of the radiological consequences of an accident and the architecture of electrical and control systems. The final report on this multilateral cooperation presents the programme carried out, the working method implemented and the main lessons learned. This initiative confirms the value of developing multilateral cooperation to evaluate reactor projects that have reached a sufficient degree of maturity, in an international context marked by standardisation. On the strength of this positive assessment, the JER stakeholders agreed to launch a third phase to look in greater depth at certain key issues relating to the new design of the Nuward SMR. The group has also expanded with the addition of the Belgian Authority (AFCN) as a member and the Italian Authority (ISIN) as an observer. 316 ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025
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