What happened
Türkiye’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority has updated the management-system regulation covering nuclear installations, radiation facilities and radioactive-waste facilities. According to Enerji Günlüğü, the revision establishes new duties for modification control and configuration management.
Organisations must manage permanent and temporary modifications through defined stages: identification, design, assessment, review, approval, implementation, testing and documentation. Competent staff must undertake an initial review before any planned modification is made, determining its category and considering safety and security consequences.
Where a proposed modification has implications for safety or security, it must receive an additional assessment. Operators must also ensure that changes do not impair the facility’s safety, security or nuclear-safeguards functions.
Affected facilities, structures, systems and equipment cannot resume operation until tests have demonstrated conformity with the design and confirmed the appropriate configuration. Relevant training, safety analysis reports, documentation and software must be updated where needed.
Why it matters
The changes formalise a pre-use control process for operational and technical alterations at covered facilities in Türkiye. For operators, the practical priority is to make sure proposed modifications have clear ownership, documented assessment and approval routes, and testing before equipment or systems return to service.
The regulation also tightens the treatment of temporary modifications. These will be constrained in both duration and number, and may not substitute for permanent solutions. Any outstanding steps in the control process must be completed as soon as possible after the modification.
For nuclear facilities and radioactive-waste facilities, configuration management must maintain alignment between design requirements, physical configuration and supporting records. Nuclear power plants must run this process using an information-technology-based system.
What operators should do next
The amended rules took effect on 2 October 2026, and covered organisations have a three-month compliance window from that date. Operators should review current change-control procedures, identify whether their configuration records and digital systems meet the new requirements, and address gaps in testing, documentation and staff training.
