CNS - Convention on Nuclear Safety

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Austria is a party to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS, BGBl. III number 39/1998).

“Nuclear Coordination” at the Federal Ministry acts as a National Contact Point in its dealings with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO).

The Convention is a response to the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and aims at supporting a high level of nuclear safety by way of international cooperation. Pursuant to Article 20 of the Convention, review meetings take place every three years at which national reports on the measures taken by the Contracting Parties for the honouring of each individual obligation under the Convention are subject to peer review.

The Fukushima disaster also led to an IAEA action plan. Among other things, it called on the parties to the Convention to explore ways of improving the effectiveness of the implementation and application of the Convention.

This triggered a special conference on the CNS in 2012. At this special session, the Swiss Confederation submitted an ambitious but controversial proposal to amend the Convention (obligation to continuously improve nuclear safety and global retrofitting obligation for all existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) in states party to the CNS). In 2015, a diplomatic conference dealt with the proposed amendment. However, despite the efforts of the Euratom MS, a formal revision of the Convention on Nuclear Safety could not be implemented against the resistance of almost all other operating states. After months of tough negotiations, this Diplomatic Conference adopted the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety on 9 February 2015 - almost four years after the accident - which adopted the substance of the Swiss proposal, but only as a non-binding recommendation.

The joint 8th (which was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19) and 9th review meeting was scheduled for March 2023, which was also characterised by the war in Ukraine and its implications for nuclear safety.

Austria's National Reports (in English)