Prof. Samy Soliman- ENRRA Chairman- Participation in the IAEA Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF) Steering Committee

22 June, 2021

22-23 June 2021

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Regulatory Cooperation Framework (RCF) convened its Steering Committee Meeting during (22-23 June 2021) virtually; with the participation of more than 70 participants from 20 countries; to adopt amended RCF Terms of Refences (TOR) and Operational Plan.

The RCF is a member-driven forum of nuclear safety regulators; promoting the sharing of regulatory knowledge and experience through international cooperation.

During this two days meeting, active RCF recipient and provider countries both successfully discussed on the latest progress, identified challenges, and available potential support through the RCF. In line with the status of the Nuclear & Radiological regulatory infrastructure development, different presentations have been delivered by Egypt, Belarus, Bangladesh, Jordan, Nigeria, Poland, Ghana, Morocco and Sudan.

Prof. Samy Soliman- ENRRA Chairman- in the second day of the meeting, presented ENRRA major achievements during the last decade since the promulgation of the law no. 7 for the year 2010 until the issuance of the second ENRRA Strategic Plan (2021/2025) in 2020. His Excellency further shared with the respected attendees ENRRA vision, mission, core values, mandate and policy.

During his presentation, Prof. Samy quoted that “ENRRA has now relocated to its new fully digitalized headquarters; backed by strong designed Integrated Management System (IMS). It is also foreseen that all ENRRA services will be provided electronically through its website.”

The Egyptian participation in the meeting was praised by Mr. Bismark Tyobeka (RCF Chairman) stating that  through the RCF, it will be easier for Egypt to access the regulatory experiences of other participating countries that took the same path such as Bangladesh.

During the Q&A session, the RCF secretariat addressed Prof. Samy some questions with regards to the adopted methodology of recruitment and the training program that is being currently applied. Prof. Samy replied that Egypt is not new to the Nuclear Program which started in Egypt back in the fifties, also Egypt constructed its Research Reactor back in the sixties and thus it can be said that Egypt has the qualified personnel that is currently undertaking a designed capacity building program mapped against each employee current competency level and the desired level to be achieved in the near future.

Finally, Prof. Samy seized the opportunity of the European Commission presence in the meeting and called upon the need to renew ENRRA and EC ties through renovating the project with its European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC) counterpart that ended in 2017. In these regards, his Excellency highlighted that the future contract is envisaged to be designed in complementarity with the current activities provided by ENRRA contracted TSOs between which, its Russian Counterpart JSC “VO “Safety”.