ARTEMIS missions are part of the services offered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Christophe Depaus, an expert in safety strategy for deep disposal of high-level and/or long-lived radioactive waste, has already chaired two ARTEMIS missions: one to Bulgaria (2018), and the other to Portugal (2023). He knows what's at stake.
Christophe, let's start by setting out the general framework of ARTEMIS
Christophe: "ARTEMIS (Integrated Review Service for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation) missions are an integrated peer review service of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This review covers radioactive waste and spent fuel management programmes, as well as remediation and dismantling programmes for decommissioned nuclear facilities.
ARTEMIS missions are requested by IAEA member states and are intended for policy leaders. In Belgium's case, it was the Belgian State that requested an ARTEMIS peer review from the IAEA, and ONDRAF/NIRAS, as the radioactive waste management agency, is in charge of hosting and coordinating the mission. There are also several stakeholders involved: the Directorate General for Energy of the Federal Public Service Economy, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, the companies Belgoprocess and Synatom, the nuclear research centre SCK CEN and the Nuclear Provisions Commission."
What is the purpose and scope of the ARTEMIS missions?
Christophe: "The aim is to assess existing national programmes against IAEA safety standards and international best practice. ARTEMIS missions provide suggestions and recommendations from an international team of independent specialists, known as the reviewers, set up by the IAEA.
Their scope varies depending on the needs and requirements of the beneficiary member state, but they generally cover 6 areas, divided into 7 subjects, which are:
- National radioactive waste and spent fuel management policy(ies) and the related legislative, regulatory and organisational framework;
- The national strategy, which broadly corresponds to the national programme as defined by Directive 2011/70/Euratom;
- The inventory of waste and spent fuel;
- Proposed management concepts, plans and solutions;
- Safety cases and assessments relating to existing or future management facilities;
- Cost estimates and financing mechanisms, and finally,
- The measures taken to ensure and maintain a high level of competence, expertise and training for the various bodies involved in this management.
Belgium has requested a full ARTEMIS review with a focus on spent fuel policies.
The IAEA selects the international team of reviewers based on their recognised skills and country of origin, to ensure pluralism and independent judgement. Reviewers work for both Waste Management Organisations (WMOs) and nuclear regulators.
Ultimately, these reviews lead to suggestions and recommendations that should enable the beneficiary state to improve its overall radioactive waste and spent fuel management system, as well as its nuclear facility remediation and decommissioning programme. The guiding thread is, of course, nuclear safety, the protection of people and the environment, and compliance with international regulations and directives."
Is an ARTEMIS mission an audit?
Christophe: "Let me just clarify the status of these missions, because it's often misunderstood. ARTEMIS is not an audit, in the sense that there is no certification involved. The reviewers' approach is always considerate, and they're aiming to help the host country improve its methodologies, plans, etc., by making recommendations, usually to policy decision-makers.
While most of the observations are addressed to the government, this doesn't mean that some of them cannot be addressed directly to operators, the radioactive waste manager or the regulator.
It's this seemingly gentle approach that is also one of ARTEMIS' strengths: the recommendations made do not have the force of law, but are a lever for "pushing the boundaries". Ultimately, these are specialist suggestions addressed directly to decision-makers, without any intermediaries. Of course, this is all done in a spirit of respect for international law that we mustn't lose sight of."
ARTEMIS missions also enable us to meet European obligations. In what way?
Christophe: “European Union Member States are required to comply with the obligations in Article 14 of Directive 2011/70/Euratom, which stipulates that their radioactive waste and spent fuel management programme and legal and regulatory frameworks must be subject to a peer review every ten years.
Although it is not the role of the ARTEMIS service to check that European member states' national programmes are in compliance with this directive, it does enable them to meet the obligations arising from it. ARTEMIS is the perfect tool to carry out this assessment."
How do reviewers organise their ARTEMIS mission?
Christophe: "The scenario is fairly standard: about two months before the start of the mission, the reviewers receive the advanced reference materials, a corpus of all the documents they'll have to analyse before the mission. It consists primarily of a self-assessment questionnaire that the beneficiary country will have completed with all the players in the sector and the national programme drawn up in accordance with Directive 2011/70/Euratom. As well as these two key elements, there are also legislative texts, technical and financial documents, training plans, etc.
The reviewers divide up the themes according to their expertise. Typically, these are engineers or scientists who are also familiar with IAEA safety guidelines and standards, and who have solid professional experience in one or more of the mission's fields. Knowledge of international nuclear (and environmental) law is often very useful.
Analysing these documents enables the reviewers to draw up an initial provisional descriptive report, together with questions that are sent to the beneficiary state three weeks before the mission actually begins. Based on the country's answers to the questions, the reviewers complete and adapt their provisional report by issuing initial recommendations (in the event of deviations from IAEA safety standards), suggestions (i.e. invitations to improve some methods in order to take account of good practice) and, exceptionally, recognition of "best practices", i.e. practices that go beyond the usual safety standards, to the point of constituting a new benchmark.
During the course of the mission, additional questions may arise, requiring verbal answers and clarifications. The list of observations is discussed with the host country to ensure that there are no misunderstandings or factual errors. Following a discussion, these observations can sometimes be reformulated to make them more relevant to a particular institutional situation, for example. Once finalised, this report is hand-delivered to a senior representative of the beneficiary state's authority.
An ARTEMIS mission requires a great deal of work, both on the part of the beneficiary state and the reviewers, and in particular the team leader, who acts as both reviewer and coordinator."
What can we expect from Belgium's ARTEMIS mission?
Christophe: "Belgium has requested a full ARTEMIS mission, with a particular focus on spent fuel management policy for power plants and research reactors.
Another specific feature is that Belgium decided to carry out the ARTEMIS mission following the IRRS (Integrated Regulatory Review Service) mission, which is coordinated by the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC). The IRRS is an integrated regulatory review service, also under the authority of the IAEA. In this particular case, we refer to "back-to-back" missions to minimise possible redundancies in the review of the regulatory framework. For IAEA, this choice adds an additional constraint, since there must be a common expert working on both missions to ensure continuity."