Production of nuclear energy must be safe; only then it can be successful in the long term.

Achieving and maintaining a high level of safety in nuclear installations is related to site evaluation, design and long term operation, including ageing management, periodic safety review and configuration management and must be the primary concern of any party planning a nuclear installation.

This must apply to the entire cycle to cover location, design, construction, operation and decommissioning, to include: (a) the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle (NFC): uranium milling and refining, conversion and enrichment, fuel fabrication and fuel cycle research and development facilities; (b) reactor technology: power and research reactors; and (c) the back end of the NFC: spent fuel storage, reprocessing and waste conditioning facilities.

The IAEA addresses a large number of topics in the safety field: it promotes international conventions and agreements, foremost the ‘Convention on Nuclear Safety’ (additional safety-related conventions and codes are listed below). The

IAEA maintains a number of safety standards, inter alia on site evaluations, power plants, research reactors, fuel cycle facilities, radioactive waste and disposal facilities and on transport of radioactive material (IAEA, 2010/5).

The Agency maintains The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) system (IAEA, 2009/1) and the International Response System (IRS, jointly operated with OECD’s NEA) to assist in the case of nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies and to help to determine the actual, potential or perceived radiological significance of such incidents for more than one state. INES and IRS deal with incidents and accidents in nuclear facilities and activities including nuclear reactors and any other nuclear fuel cycle facility. They also include the transport and storage of nuclear materials, radioactive waste management facilities, the transport and storage of radioactive wastes, and the manufacture, use, storage, disposal and transport of radioisotopes for agricultural, medical and related scientific or research purposes. The scope of the IAEA IRS also covers incidents, nuclear or radiological, such as those involving loss, unauthorized removal, misuse or abuse of radioactive or nuclear material, the spill or spread of radioactive material, incidents involving health effects and provision of medical care. It also includes situations resulting from the malicious use of radioactive or nuclear material. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), a specialized agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), had started the exchange of information on safety related events in nuclear power plants in 1978, but it was only in 1995 that close cooperation resulted in the transfer of the system to the IAEA (IAEA/NEA, 2010).

On 26 April 1986 the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Since that time much has been said about the real consequences of the accident, including implications for health, environment, safety, society and the economies of areas affected by the accident. A number of comprehensive reports with an analysis of the accident were provided to the UNSCEAR General Assembly in 2000 (UNSCEAR, 2000). A more indirect consequence of the Chernobyl accident was the formulation of two new conventions: the ‘Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident’ (IAEA, 1986/1) and the ‘Convention on Assistance in Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency’ (IAEA, 1986/2). These oblige the Agency to develop appropriate radiation monitoring standards and to assist states in developing their own preparedness arrangements for nuclear and radiological emergencies. They include the collection and dissemination of information on methodologies and techniques relating to the response to nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies, how to prepare emergency plans and their appropriate legislation, the provision of training programmes for personnel to deal with accidents and emergencies, and radiation monitoring programmes, procedures and standards.

The IAEA’S Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) was set up in 2005 — it is available around the clock and cooperates with other international organizations.

The centre operates the global Response Assistance Network, which provides assistance in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency on a regional basis. It is a system for international assistance to minimize the actual or potential radiological consequences for health, environment and property. The activities of the IEC aim to strengthen Member States’ preparedness in response to these needs. In addition to safety standards relating to the preparedness for and response to incidents and emergencies, technical manuals and training materials for the application of those standards are being developed (IAEA, 2011/4).

An additional important element for a global safety and security system is the assurance that radioactive sources are kept in a safe and secure manner; this has become more important in the light of terrorist attacks in the early years of the twenty-first century. To support states in this activity, codes and guidelines were developed and strengthened after September 2001 (IAEA, 2004; IAEA, 2005/1).