Regulatory Oversight Report for Safety of Nuclear Facilities in Lithuania 2024
March 19, 2025. State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) concluded that all nuclear facilities - the permanently shut-down Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, spent fuel storage facilities and radioactive waste management facilities in Lithuania operated safely during 2024. The evaluated inspection and regulatory review results showed the high level of nuclear safety, radiation safety and physical security in facilities and licensee made adequate provisions to ensure safety and security of public and environment while ensuring that Lithuania continued to meet its international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear materials.
As of October 2024, the SE Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant implements decommissioning, dismantling, decontamination and demolition activities under a decommissioning licence. According to the current legal framework, specific decommissioning activities at Ignalina NPP can only be carried out after the safety of these activities has been demonstrated in decontamination and dismantling projects and their safety analysis reports, and the relevant permits have been obtained. Therefore, one of the priority areas of VATESI's oversight has been to review the documents supporting the safety of these works and to verify the implementation of the safety requirements.
Another priority area concerned the safety oversight of radioactive waste management and the removal of radioactive waste from the Maišiagala radioactive waste storage facility: inspections of waste removal and handling, dismantling of waste removal equipment, and alignment of the programme and reports of radiological measurements.
Ignalina NPP had three unusual events that were rated below the scale (0 level) on the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES) which had no impact on safety, the dose limits of operating personnel were not exceeded and there were no identified releases of radioactive material into the environment.
In 2024, VATESI conducted 56 inspections (59 in 2023). Most of the inspections were performed at State Enterprise Ignalina NPP.
During 43 inspections at Ignalina NPP, VATESI inspectors focused on safety requirements related with maintenance of permanently shut-down unit’s systems and components important to safety, works under projects of dismantling and decontamination, management of radioactive waste, transport of radioactive waste to the storage facilities, ensuring physical security and radiation safety of the nuclear facilities and nuclear and other radioactive materials, fire protection, cybersecurity, ensuring emergency preparedness, non-proliferation obligations, how employees of Ignalina NPP were trained and how their sufficient qualifications were ensured.
In 2024, 18 violations were identified during the inspections (27 in 2023). No violations were found that could directly affect the exposure doses of workers, could damage safety barriers, could deteriorate the properties of safety related equipment and could cause radionuclide releases into the environment. All identified violations enterprises are eliminating by agreed schedule and measures.
The results of the radiological monitoring show that in 2024, the activities of the Ignalina NPP in the operation of spent fuel storage facilities and radioactive waste management facilities, as well as in the decommissioning activities, did not exceed the limits set for the release of radionuclides to the environment, and that the activities in these nuclear facilities and in the decommissioning and decontamination projects planned for them were carried out in a safe manner.
Very few unusual events in the nuclear facilities and no serious violations which could affect the provision of essential safety functions demonstrates reached high safety level in the permanently shut-down Ignalina NPP and other nuclear facilities in Lithuania. Similarly, economic entities operating in the ionising radiation environment at nuclear facilities and holders of small quantities of nuclear material have ensured a high level of safety in their activities.
State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) is an independent governmental organisation for regulatory oversight of nuclear safety, radiation safety and physical security at nuclear facilities in Lithuania.