India will present its first detailed report on safety of the civilian nuclear plants at the forthcoming two-week Convention of Nuclear Safety (CNS) beginning on April 14 at Vienna.

India joined the convention in 2005 and "this will be our first national report on the safety of civilian nuclear plants," Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Chairman, S K Sharma who will be leading a 17-member team to CNS said.

"Although nuclear power plants all over the world are operating at a very high level of safety and we have different means of exchanging such information on safety, the CNS would furhter strengthen the safety of operating nuclear power plants," he said.

"In 2005 when India joined the convention just three months before the third review meeting, we were just an observer, he said. CNS review meeting is held every third year.

Sixty countries will be participating in the convention and there will be six groups each represented by 10 countries with a chairman, vice-chairman and a rapporteur. At the end of the two week, a combined report for the president of the convention will be prepared, he said.

Senior officials from Nuclear Power Corporation of India, AERB and Department of Atomic Energy will participate in the meeting.

The CNS was adopted in June 1994. The Convention was drawn up during a series of expert level meetings from 1992 to 1994 and was the result of considerable work by Governments, national nuclear safety authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency's Secretariat.

CNS' aim is to legally commit participating States operating land-based nuclear power plants to maintain a high level of safety by setting international benchmarks to which States would subscribe.

AERB chief who is also a member of the International Safety Group (INSAG), an advisory body, said the Group will give a presentation for the benefit of countries going for nuclear power programme for the first time and also improve

CNS.

According to IAEA, the obligations of the countries are based to a large extent on the principles contained in the IAEA Safety Fundamentals document "The Safety of Nuclear Installations".

These obligations cover for instance, siting, design, construction, operation, the availability of adequate financial and human resources, the assessment and verification of safety, quality assurance and emergency preparedness, IAEA said.

The Convention obliges countries to submit reports on the implementation of their obligations for "peer review" at meetings of the countries to be held at the IAEA. This mechanism is the main innovative and dynamic element of the

Convention, the agency said.

The Convention entered into force on 24 October 1996. As of April 2007, there were 65 signatories to the Convention and 61 contracting parties. All countries with operating nuclear power plants are now parties to the Convention.