As part of the Junior Staff Programme (JSP) of the European Nuclear Safety Organizations Network (ETSON), IRSN welcomed more than twenty participants to Cherbourg on the general theme of the release of radioactive material - sea and atmosphere - and radioactive waste.
 
The aim is to encourage interaction between young people from TSOs (Technical Safety Organizations), to exchange information on safety practices and approaches in different countries, to discover the cultures of other organizations, and to help expand one's professional network. The program included contributions from participants (some of them of a high scientific level), interactive case studies and visits to facilities: the EPR construction site in Flamanville, the IRSN lab in Cherbourg and its work on the impact on the marine and terrestrial environment, and the Cité de la Mer for marine biology.
 
In addition to IRSN, representatives from ENEA (Italy), LEI (Lithuania), GRS (Germany), SURO (Czech Republic), Jacobs RSD and National Nuclear Laboratories (UK), VTT (Finland), BelV (Belgium), and even a participant from NRA (Japan), which is an associate member of ETSON, participated. A participant from the French Safety Authority ASN allowed to compare the action of a safety authority and that of TSOs.
 
This workshop is normally held annually with 20-40 participants. The last workshop was hosted in 2019 on passive safety devices by ENEA in Bologna, Italy. The host TSO in 2020 was to be SSTC-NRS from Ukraine. The pandemic and then the war did not allow our Ukrainian colleagues to host, as planned, the "Summer workshop" and IRSN offered to host it in their place. SSTC will be given priority to host a Summer Workshop as soon as peace returns.
 
The ETSON JSP delegates meeting took place during the workshop and we got news on Ukraine by video from Oksana Buchynska who is the SSTC delegate. Also one of the two case studies was the estimate of potential long term consequences of an accident on a Ukrainian VVER 1000 reactor, thanks to the expertise of our Czech colleagues who shared with us their work for their safety authority (their reactors are of the same type as Zaporizhzhia).
 
Don't miss the next edition!
 
 
Learn more about the Junior Staff Program: http://www.etson.eu/jsp
List of ETSON members: http://www.etson.eu/members