President Kádár Addresses Key Nuclear Industry Issues at Budapest Energy and Security Talks

Budapest Energy and Security Talks

The Budapest Energy and Security Talks is a leading international conference in Hungary aiming to provide a platform for key political, foreign policy and economic leaders to engage and re-engage in an in-depth, strategic dialogue on the Central-Eastern European region’s most important security and energy challenges. At the 14 July event, participants included more than 200 top political and economic decision-makers, opinion-formers, and foreign and security policy experts from the European Union, the United States, and Central and Eastern Europe.

In her opening remarks, Ms Andrea Beatrix Kádár, President of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, highlighted that interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) is increasing due to their modular nature, resulting in potentially lower upfront costs and faster construction period compared to traditional nuclear power plants. Their inherent advantages is also one of the major challenges to regulators, as there are many designs being developed, and the current regulatory framework was developed with conventional, large nuclear power plants in mind. Applying the same approach to SMRs would hinder the innovation and undermine the effectiveness of their licensing and oversight. Therefore, SMR related regulation requires a different approach as once the design is approved, the planning, licensing and construction of a particular SMR would be noticeably quicker than in the case of large conventional reactors.

Participants in the subsequent panel discussion touched upon how regulators can overcome these challenges, what the International Atomic Energy Agency can do to facilitate cooperation between regulatory bodies and stakeholders as well as on the potential impact of widespread application of artificial intelligence in the nuclear industry.

The President of the HAEA remarked that in this environment it is crucial for nuclear regulatory bodies to adapt to these challenges and to become more efficient while maintaining the highest level of safety.