The 26th annual meeting of the Forum of Nuclear Safety Authorities of the Countries Operating VVER Type Reactors (VVER Forum) took place on June 18 and 19, 2019, in Pravets, Bulgaria. The VVER Forum was attended by the Rostechnadzor delegation headed by Deputy Chairman Alexey Ferapontov.

The meeting was also attended by senior officials and experts from the nuclear safety regulatory bodies of Armenia, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Slovakia and Ukraine, with Belarus, Germany and the IAEA participating as observers.

The sessions included updates on the most safety significant occurrences in the operation of the VVER nuclear power plants. The participants also shared information on the changes made in their respective nuclear and radiation safety regulatory frameworks since the 25th VVER Forum held in Belarus in 2018.

The meeting participants discussed the activities of the Probabilistic Safety Analysis Working Group and the Reactor Physics Working Group over the reporting period and approved the nominee proposed by Rostechnadzor as chairman of the Ageing Management Working Group. Also, the participants were informed about the activities of the VVER Working Group under the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP).

As part of the meeting’s agenda, the participants paid a technical visit to the Kozloduy NPP.

The next VVER Forum meeting is to be held in Hungary, presumably in June 2020.