By Lucy Ashton, IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy

The IAEA’s 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power 2023: Atoms4NetZero concluded in Vienna recently with an appeal for a “level playing field” on energy policies and access to financing so that nuclear power can fulfil its potential in achieving climate change and energy security goals.

The conference’s president, Ambassador Hamad Alkaabi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), brought the event to an end following a week of high-level talks involving nearly 550 participants from 81 countries and 26 invited organisations. Participants agreed that nuclear energy plays a pivotal role in addressing climate change but must overcome several challenges to achieve the large-scale deployment that several authoritative global studies say is needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“We must continue to push for a level playing field for nuclear energy, in terms of policies and access to financing, which can allow the technology to benefit from similarly favorable conditions that helped to deploy renewable energy technologies at scale over the last decade,” Mr. Alkaabi said in his summary of the conference’s conclusions. “Long term energy policies, innovative electricity market designs and technology-neutral sustainable finance frameworks that recognize nuclear’s contribution to energy system reliability, flexibility and decarbonization are needed.”

At the start of the conference, the IAEA released its latest annual outlook for nuclear power in the coming decades, with its projections revised up for a third consecutive year. The high case projection sees installed nuclear capacity more than doubling by 2050. That is just above the figures recently published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for nuclear power’s required contribution to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the average increase in global temperatures to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Currently, 31 countries operate nuclear power, which provides more than nine per cent of the world’s electricity but accounts for around 25 per cent of its clean electricity. Another 30 countries or so are embarking on or considering the introduction of nuclear power, with support from the IAEA.

“We found consensus on the crucial role of nuclear energy in meeting climate targets, with emphasis on safe long-term operation of existing nuclear power plants in established nuclear markets, the need to rapidly deploy proven large-scale reactors and the urgency of bringing Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to market as soon as possible, particularly to replace fossil plants of similar size, including to meet the needs of emerging countries and for non-electric applications,” Alkaabi said.

The UAE will host COP28, the UN’s main climate change conference, starting next month in Dubai, where the IAEA for the second successive year will host a pavilion highlighting the role of nuclear energy in mitigating and adapting to climate change. “This year at COP, countries using nuclear energy will gather around the global convening point of the IAEA to state the reality: they use, they will continue to use, and they will increase the contribution of nuclear energy to the energy mix,” IAEA Director-General said in his  opening remarks to this week’s conference.

The conference kicked off with a keynote address by the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol who noted that progress on nuclear power is currently not keeping pace and pointed to Europe, where 20 years ago nuclear provided 30 per cent of electricity but will fall to about 15 per cent in the coming years unless national policies change. “This has a lot of implications,” Mr. Birol said, “for Europe’s electricity security and how challenging it will be to fight against climate change.”

As well as providing clean electricity 24 hours a day, nuclear power could also radically cut emissions in industry, transportation and buildings, known as the hard-to-abate sectors, which are responsible for 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear power can produce process heat for industries such as cement and steel making, clean hydrogen for transport and other uses, district heating for buildings and also help address the growing global need for fresh drinking water by reducing the carbon footprint of desalinisation. 

“Nuclear power is the only technology that can produce at scale the three low-carbon energy vectors needed to reach net zero: electricity, heat and hydrogen,” Alkaabi said. “Unfortunately, there is a large disconnect between what nuclear technology can deliver and how this potential is portrayed in climate scenarios that inform policymakers.” 

To help governments and financial institutions make data-driven, science-based decisions about their investments in future energy systems, the IAEA last year launched the Atoms4NetZero initiative. In cooperation with a variety of partners, it aims to provide a comprehensive energy scenario modelling service, featuring the full potential of nuclear power in achieving net zero emissions, including providing non-electric applications such as hydrogen production. 

The weeklong conference included ten high-level panels, a high-level segment, a special session, 18 technical sessions, and seven side events organized by various stakeholders. The panels focused on the role of nuclear power in the global clean energy transition, and how to enable it to fulfil its potential in that role, and mobilize multi-stakeholders, including women and young generation groups, to facilitate the global dialogue about nuclear as a sustainable low-carbon energy source.

Dr. Satyajit Ghose has spent nearly 30 years in the field of nuclear safety, of which the last 15 years he worked as a regulator for Bangladesh’s nuclear sector. Last year, his daily regulatory activities included preparing for and hosting a complex international peer review to assess how Bangladesh is ensuring the protection of people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation.

The review was timely, as Bangladesh is embarking on a nuclear power programme. Its first nuclear power plant (NPP), Rooppur NPP, is under construction, and earlier this month, Bangladesh officially received its first uranium shipment to fuel the NPP. Once operational, Rooppur NPP will provide 2400 MW of clean energy, supporting the country’s efforts to decarbonise and become a developed economy by 2041. “Bangladesh stands as a success story for newcomer countries in nuclear power development, advancing its programme under the IAEA’s guidance,” said IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “The IAEA will continue to support their nuclear journey.”

The IAEA offers more than 30 peer review and advisory services to help countries strengthen and enhance their nuclear-related practices. Peer reviews, which are organized upon request, compare the country’s national infrastructure and practices with IAEA safety standards and other publications. These services, often referred to as ‘missions,’ focus on an array of specialties, from nuclear safety and security to safeguards and the health sector. The Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) is one such mission that reviews a country’s regulatory infrastructure against IAEA safety standards with a view to improve nuclear and radiation safety and facilitate global harmonization.

“The IRRS mission in Bangladesh was particularly important to review and strengthen regulatory infrastructure required for ensuring the safety of the country’s nuclear power programme,” said Senior Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA Zia Shah. Shah was the Team Coordinator of the IAEA’s IRRS in Bangladesh, from 26 November to 8 December 2022. “This IRRS mission provides an opportunity for the country to optimize efforts and resources for effective regulatory oversight of the nuclear power plant and all other nuclear-related facilities and activities in line with the IAEA safety standards.”

While the mission brings experts from many different countries, the mission is based on IAEA safety standards, not national practices, which contributes to the international harmonization of nuclear safety practices.  

The IAEA safety standards reflect an international consensus on what constitutes a high level of safety. “While the mission brings experts from many different countries, the mission is based on IAEA safety standards, not national practices, which contributes to the international harmonization of nuclear safety practices,” said Head of Regulatory Infrastructure and Transport Safety at the IAEA Hilaire Mansoux.  

Mansoux, who has personally completed more than 30 IRRS missions, was the Deputy Team Coordinator of the IAEA’s IRRS mission in Bangladesh. “Good preparation, efficacy and professionalism of all those involved are key to a successful mission,” he said.

Here is an account of what happened before, during and after the IRRS in Bangladesh.

Before the mission

The IRRS in Bangladesh – the first for the country – was years in the making. “The Government formally requested the mission in 2017 to fulfil its international obligation to peer review regulatory effectiveness,” said Chief Scientific Officer and Project Director of the Nuclear Regulatory Infrastructure Development Project at Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) Dr. Satyajit Ghose. The IAEA, together with Bangladesh, followed up with preparatory work to conduct the mission initially planned in 2019, but actually implemented in 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

Before hosting the IRRS mission in Bangladesh, Ghose observed the IRRS in Spain in October 2018 and then participated as a team member of the IRRS in Turkey in September 2022. “The valuable experiences I gained and the lessons learned from other experts helped my team and me to organize and conduct a successful mission in Bangladesh,” he said.

The IAEA and BAERA organized the scope of the mission into ten modules: the responsibilities and functions of the government; the global nuclear safety regime; the responsibilities and functions of the regulatory body; the management system of the regulatory body; and the activities of the regulatory body, which includes: authorization; review and assessment; inspection and enforcement; development of regulations and guides; and emergency preparedness and response. The scope of an IRRS may vary from country to country, depending on the country’s nuclear-related facilities and activities.

“Within BAERA, active preparation for the IRRS began in July 2021, as we designated groups and set responsibilities to complete the self-assessment response and analysis activities,” said Ghose, who served as the liaison officer for the mission. In line with IRRS guidelines, BAERA conducted a thorough self-assessment, prepared a preliminary action plan for improvement and submitted advance reference materials in September 2022.

It is an opportunity to learn from each other, from our teammates and host country, and to take these lessons learned back to our home countries.

Meanwhile, the IAEA recruited a team of 15 regulatory and safety experts from ten different countries. For some, this was the first time they had participated in an IRRS, while others had been part of previous missions or had hosted an IRRS in their own country. It was the fourth mission for Mahalakshmi Sivaramakrishnan of India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. She completed the IAEA training course for potential reviewers in 2015 and was then invited to participate in missions, given her expertise in the protection of patients in medical uses or ionizing radiation. “The result of the IRRS mission is impactful for both the host country and the team,” she said. “It is an opportunity to learn from each other, from our teammates and host country, and to take these lessons learned back to our home countries.”

Each member of the team, based on their expertise, was assigned a type of facility or activity to review, such as nuclear power plants, research reactors, decommissioning, waste management or medical exposure. The work of the IRRS team, supported by five IAEA staff, began two months before they convened on-site in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Prior to the mission, each team member spent time reviewing BAERA’s advance reference materials to understand the regulatory infrastructure in place in Bangladesh and within BAERA.

“The team’s pre-work and their first impressions of the legal and regulatory framework in Bangladesh have set us up well for the two weeks of the mission,” said Team Leader of the IRRS in Bangladesh, Mark Foy on the first day of the mission. Foy is the Chief Executive and Chief Nuclear Inspector at the United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation. “The preparation provided the team members with a basic understanding of the arrangements in Bangladesh. They have identified areas where they need additional information and clarity of the framework, its implementation and compliance with international safety standards, which is why we are here in Dhaka.”

In July 2023, the IAEA sent the final IRRS mission report to Bangladesh.

The value of the IRRS mission is widespread. “One important IRRS attribute is its contribution to strengthening and harmonizing the global nuclear and radiation safety regime. I trust each of us will take some useful information and practices that was shared by our BAERA colleagues,” said  Director of Nuclear Installation Safety at the IAEA Anna Bradford. “Similarly, I am sure that Bangladesh will continue sharing the valuable insights and experience it has gathered during this mission with the international community.”

Based on the mission’s findings and report, BAERA has updated its action plan for improvement of its regulatory system. “We are working to enhance BAERA’s regulatory effectiveness based on the IRRS findings to strengthen our regulatory infrastructure in line with international standards,” Ghose said. “Per the action plan, BAERA is working on finalizing the draft regulatory documents and developing policy documents, in addition to developing training programmes for newly recruited regulatory inspectors.”

In due course, a follow-up mission will assess Bangladesh’s progress in implementing the mission’s recommendations and suggestions.