Federal Council approves ENSI Board’s 2024 activity and business report
The ENSI Board has assessed ENSI’s regulatory activities in relation to Switzerland’s nuclear installations as responsible, appropriate and of high quality.
Strategic oversight of ENSI
As ENSI’s strategic and internal supervisory body, the ENSI Board sets the authority’s long-term goals in a service mandate issued every four years. These goals are specified in more detail each year in a service agreement. The ENSI Board reports on progress towards these goals in its annual activity and business report to the Federal Council. The 2024 report (in German) was approved by the Federal Council on 6 June 2025.
Long-term operation of nuclear power plants
Against the backdrop of ongoing uncertainty in energy policy and delays in the expansion of renewable energy, Switzerland’s existing nuclear power plants will continue to play a key role in ensuring security of supply for decades to come. The safe long-term operation of these installations is therefore becoming increasingly important. In 2024, the ENSI Board conducted an in-depth review of international approaches to long-term operation and engaged in exchanges with the regulatory authorities in Finland and Sweden. The discussions focused on more efficient procedures and on risk-based, goal-oriented requirements for the operation of older installations.
General licence applications for the deep geological repository
Another key focus in the reporting year was the deep geological repository for radioactive waste. In November 2024, Nagra submitted two general licence applications to the federal authorities: one for a repository in the North of Lägern region and one for an encapsulation plant near the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Würenlingen. ENSI will review the applications and prepare a report for the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) by 2027. To deepen its technical oversight, the ENSI Board also visited the French underground laboratory and the planned repository site in Meuse/Haute-Marne.