European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements (*)

^{(*) Key achievements in the table state which period they relate to. Many come from the implementation of the predecessor programmes under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. This is expected and is due to the multiannual life cycle of EU programmes and the projects they finance, where results often follow only after completion of the programmes.}

Budget for 2021-2027

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Rationale and design of the programme

The programme's objective is to support the promotion of nuclear safety culture and radiation protection, the safe management of spent nuclear fuels and radioactive wastes and the application of effective and efficient safeguards of nuclear materials in non-EU countries.

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

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Financial programming:
+ EUR 0.0 million (+ 0%)
compared to the legal basis*

^{* Top-ups pursuant to Article 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.}

Budget performance – implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2023 (million EUR):

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Voted budget implementation (million EUR)^(*):

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Contribution to horizontal priorities

Green budgeting

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

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Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

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• The INSC continues to promote gender equality through its training, tutoring and education programme, where the participation of partner countries is conditional upon the gender-balanced registration of students.
• In 2023, 22 students followed the master’s course in European leadership for safety education financed by the INSC, 11 of whom were women, and 26 followed the master’s course in nuclear safeguards, 12 of whom were women. The course started in 2022. 

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

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• The INSC continues to promote gender equality through its training, tutoring and education programme, where the participation of partner countries is conditional upon the gender-balanced registration of students.
• In 2023, 22 students followed the master’s course in European leadership for safety education financed by the INSC, 11 of whom were women, and 26 followed the master’s course in nuclear safeguards, 12 of whom were women. The course started in 2022.

Budget performance – outcomes

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The INSC builds on the recognised and successful assistance and cooperation with partner countries that has been in place since 1991 within the scope of the Euratom Treaty.

Improvements in the governmental, legal and regulatory frameworks that ensure the safe use of nuclear energy is based on the transfer of regulatory practices used in the Member States.

The reaction to Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine since February 2022 demonstrated that the instrument can meet the needs of partners under challenging and constantly evolving conditions. The provision of support to Ukraine to address the consequences of the unprovoked Russian invasion and continued aggression is a priority. This includes restoring stolen, looted and destroyed nuclear- and radiation-protection-related infrastructure in Ukraine.

The INSC-funded programmes in Ukraine continued to be implemented without delays, despite war-related hardship conditions such as insecurity and frequent electricity blackouts. These achievements are the result of the determination and resilient efforts of the Ukrainian beneficiaries and the implementing partners, and the coordination efforts of the EU through its support organisations in Ukraine.
Through regional cooperation with the African Commission on Nuclear Energy, the number of countries benefiting from the partnership on nuclear safeguards is much larger than originally expected.

The main achievements of the INSC are as follows.

• The EU’s contribution to the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account, managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the reconstruction of nuclear-safety-related infrastructure in Ukraine, allowed the bank to start its ambitious programme to support continued infrastructure development at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and to procure firefighting equipment and vehicles for the safe management of radioactive waste in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This contribution in 2023 made the EU the biggest donor to the account.
• The EU has contributed to the financing of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which facilitated permanent and other expert missions to Ukrainian nuclear facilities, including the permanent mission to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
• The EU continues to uphold its commitment to civil nuclear cooperation with Iran, as outlined in Annex 3 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
• The environmental remediation in Central Asia, as implemented via the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development through the Environmental Remediation Account, addresses the legacy of former uranium mining and milling sites. So far, two sites in Kyrgyzstan have been fully remediated, and work has started at a further site in Kyrgyzstan and two in Uzbekistan, in 2023 uses funding from both the previous and the present multiannual financial framework.
• INSC support for the development of a strategy on regulatory assessment in the event of the potential introduction of small modular reactors in Ghana was initiated.

MFF 2014-2020 – Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation

The predecessor of the INSC in the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework was the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation.

Budget implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

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Performance assessment

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While the report titled Evaluation of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation 2014-2020 ⁽¹⁾ noted the high relevance and unique benefit of INSC, it also emphasised the need for improvements in cooperating with international organisations such as the Atomic Energy Agency.

Since 1991, cooperation with the regulatory authorities has primarily aimed at improving the governmental, legal and regulatory frameworks, based on experiences in the EU. This involved the transfer of regulatory practices used in the Member States, which is reflected in the number of regulatory documents indicator.

The competence of staff working in the nuclear area is of the utmost importance to ensure that the use of nuclear technology is safe. The instrument supported training and tutoring actions, which transfer EU knowledge to students and young professionals. Some 2 852 staff from partner countries were trained between 2014 and 2023. Around 42% of the trainees in 2021-2023 period were women, which contributes to the gender equality goal in a highly specialised scientific area. This confirms the success of the programme.

In the area of radioactive waste management 16 new documents were produced as an indicator of the progress of the activity implementation under the financing of the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework.

The main achievements with activities in 2023: 

• Equipment delivery for the INSC initiative to upgrade the environmental radiation monitoring and dosimetric control within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone commenced in November 2023. It is implemented by the Science and Technology Centre in Ukraine and co-funded with international donors (EU (30%), Norway (25%), Canada (22%), USA (18%), and UK (5%)). This international collaboration helped to ensure nuclear and radiation safety, not only in Ukraine, but also in the EU and beyond. The Ukraine contributes the measured environmental radiation data to the European Radiological Data Exchange Platform.
• The EU’s continued implementation of its commitment under Annex 3 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action relating to civil nuclear cooperation with Iran, led to the first supply of equipment related to nuclear safety. 
• The environmental remediation in Central Asia as implemented via the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development through the Environmental Remediation Account, addresses the legacy of former uranium mining and milling sites. So far, two sites in Kyrgyzstan have been fully remediated, and work has started at three others, one in Kyrgyzstan and two in Uzbekistan, in 2023 uses funding from both the previous and the present multiannual financial framework.
• European Union inspection practices in nuclear safety were successfully transferred to the nuclear regulator of Türkiye, which are used in the regulatory oversight of the nuclear power plant under construction.
• The first master’s degree programme in nuclear materials safeguards concluded successfully. This first curriculum of its kind contributes to the capacity-building of nuclear safeguards authorities in partner countries. 
• With support from the EU and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Moldova has taken important steps in the implementation of its national waste management strategy. The radioactive waste management organisation in Moldova (RWMCo) received licenses for the construction of a radioactive waste management storage facility and a radiological and environmental monitoring system. These facilities are prerequisite for the decommissioning of the historical radioactive waste disposal facility.

^{(1) Nuclear safety (europa.eu).}

Contribution to the sustainable development goals