Mr. Manuel Recio, Head of Section 1 of the Division for Europe of the Department for Technical Cooperation, together with Mr. David Graves, Scientific Secretary and staff member of the Regulatory Activities Section of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, participated in the opening session of the workshop, organized by the IAEA's Technical Cooperation Programme under project RER/9/099 in cooperation with the Romanian National Commission for the Control of the Nuclear Activities (CNCAN).
The participants were welcomed at the opening session by the Mayor of Curtea de Arges, Mr. Nicolae Diaconu, the President of CNCAN, Ms.Borbala Vajda, and the Director of Hidroelectica SA - Subsidiary Curtea de Arges - Mr. Constantin Ivan.
Participating in the workshop were 45 representatives from 17 Member States within the TC Europe region. Experts from Spain (Mr. Ramon de la Vega), Germany (Mr. Thomas Wildermann ), and France (Mr. Alexandre Lion) presented multiple lectures and facilitated the conduct of group discussions. The participants contributed by delivering presentations on their national regulatory frameworks and practices and actively participating in the general and group discussions.
The topic of the meeting revealed great interest among the participants in light of the relevance of the inspection and enforcement functions of the regulatory bodies to ensure licensees' compliance with the regulatory requirements in force. The general discussions demonstrated that although the national regulatory frameworks and practices vary among countries, there are also important commonalities upon which sharing experience and knowledge will contribute to reinforcing the exercise of these critical regulatory functions. The IAEA representatives took note of the suggestions and issues brought up by the participants for further improving Agency's standards and services related to the subject-matter.
The organization of the workshop, hosted by CNCAN, was excellent and the participants enjoyed the Romanian hospitality and the beauty of the city of Curtea de Arges, surrounded by impressive landscapes and crowned by the legendary Manole's Monastery masterpiece.