Assistance to the Beneficiary and the Commission for the INSC 2008/2009 activities including drafting of Fiches and TOR

In addition to NPP design and operation safety, in the EU TACIS programme a significant part of the funding was devoted to other areas, including environmental restoration and threat reduction in the North west of Russia (legacy waste, decommissioning of submarines and other facilities, etc.) as well as in the field of radioactive waste management. While significant improvements were achieved, more needed to be done in particular related with the installations that were not yet properly addressed (i.e. research centres, general radioactive waste storage facilities, i.e. not those at NPPs sites, etc).

TACIS, as a funding instrument, ceased to exist at the end of 2006 although the implementation of the projects (AP 2006 and some of the AP 2005) continued for some time.

The TACIS nuclear programme was succeeded by the “Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC)”. The strategy for the implementation of INSC specified four priority areas for the EC future assistance, among which was the “safe and sustainable management of nuclear waste, decommissioning and remediation of former nuclear sites”.

Succinct to the focus on cooperation (as compared with the assistance under the TACIS programme), the beneficiary was to assume more responsibility for programming and defining specific project activities. In order to enable the transition, and develop the planning process that would assure both that the general directions of the EC assistance were addressed and that the needs of the beneficiaries fulfilled, a Task Force composed by the representatives of the Russian beneficiary and of the EC was established. The Task Force, that was expected to guide the process during the transition period, was entrusted with establishing the overall goals of the programme, but also launching specific projects and approving PDSs and TORs for those.

The purpose of this project was to provide the technical support to the Task Force and provide technical expertise to develop the PDS/TORs under the guidance/supervision of the Task Force.

The global objective of the project was to support the activities in the Russian Federation in the field of Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning and Remediation.

The framework contract aimed at providing support to the European Commission in the implementation of the projects included in the AAP2008 and AAP2009 in the sector of Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning and Remediation.

More specifically:

• Support to the development of the ToRs

But also, in connection with the preparation of the AAP2008 and AAP2009:

• Identification of activities that fulfil the objectives of the European Commission.
• Support to the European Commission in the preparation of the Project Description Sheets.

And also, in connection with the cooperation between the European Commission and the Beneficiary, represented by Rosatom on these matters:

• Support to the joint “Russian-European Task Force for Defining Radwaste and Spent Fuel Management and Nuclear Facilities Decommissioning” that consists of representatives of the EC and of Rosatom.

A team of 6 high level experts, encompassing EU and Russian experts, each of them personally familiar with the subject area but also experienced in the EC nuclear safety assistance programmes, provided their technical skills for this project during a total of 335 working days. The activities under the project were implemented in close coordination with the AidCo A.4 Project manager, but also in coordination and responding to the requests of the Russian and EU leaders of the Task force.

The Contractor collected all needed information in Russia that was necessary for the development of the basis for programming and TORs. Also the Contractor established close contact with the appointed leaders of the Task Force on Russian and the EU side, and coordinated, and provided all necessary support to assure planned activities of the task force.

The scope of work encompassed four tasks, each with required services and required outputs:

Task 1. Preparation of a work-plan.

This work-plan addressed the approach to be applied and the time schedule that would reflect the schedule of the activities of the Task Force. In this respect, within this task, the Contractor familiarized himself with the TOR for the Task Force, including minutes of the past meetings and the planned schedule for the future activities of the Task Force.

The Contractor collected the information in relation with the activities and the plans of Rosatom’s department for Radioactive waste management, and assured that the schedules for the project activities were coordinated with them. Deliverable 1 was the work-plan including time schedule.

Task 2. Preparation of the ToRs and other documents required such as the Project Description Sheets.

In this task, the Contractor prepared the documents needed for the implementation of the AAP2008 and AAP2009.

This included:

• Information collection (such as statistics, financial, schedules, planning's, documents, etc.) on project proposals, activities, etc.;
• Establishing direct contacts with project stakeholders (such as organizations, co-financing entities, institutes, etc.);
• Conducting interviews with project stakeholders to establish all the elements necessary for development of project’s implementation documentation;
• Organizing meetings on-demand between Russian stakeholders and the European Commission related to projects and ToRs;
• Document management (such as version management, organizing the reviews, translations, template production, etc.) for the ToR and other documents required;
• Development of the first draft versions of ToRs and other documents required;
• Development of the project budgets including co-financing;
• Coordination with other concurrent activities for example Russian activities in the framework of the Russian Federal Target Programme development;
• Kick starting the cycle for the elaboration of project proposals through:
  • Solicitation of project proposal for activities from Russian stakeholders that conformed to the objectives of the European Commission and/or
  • development of own project proposals from general needs assessment to be submitted to Russian stakeholders and/or
  • publicizing the request for proposals amongst Russian project developers in the sector;
  • Produce overview documents on-demand for the European Commission related to the task;
  • Produce draft presentations on-demand for the European Commission related to ToRs and projects.

Deliverable 2 was a set of TOR's, tendering documents and other required documents as well as specific on-demand documents.

Task 3. Support to the activities of the Task Force.

In view of the role of the Task Force within the process of the preparation and implementation of the AAP2008 and AAP2009 some of the activities of the Task Force were supported. This included but was not limited to:

• Collection of information and Russian documents related with the RAW and decommissioning activities.
• Analysis of the status of activities, identification of needs.
• Collection of general information, compilation and preparation of documents for the meetings of the Task Force.
• Translation of the EU/Russian documentation (English to Russian and vice versa) to enable all of the members of the Task force to assess the reports.
• Provision of the secretariat for the Task Force, providing the function of the clearing-house for the Task Force.
• Supporting for the organization of the meetings of the Task Force.
• Translation and interpretation during the meetings of the Task Force.
• Participation at the meetings of the Task Force in the capacity of a secretary.
• Preparation of minutes of the meetings of Task Force.
• Consolidation of the action list for the Task Force and monitoring the fulfilment of actions.
• Support for the travel and logistic for the Tasks Force members, upon request.

For the EC members of the Task Force, the Contractor collected and provided information on all relevant developments in Russia related with the activities and with the decommissioning and radioactive waste management.

Deliverable # 3 was a report documenting the support provided to the Task Force for the duration of the contract. The report detailed all the activities undertaken, and provided, as annexes, all the documents that were prepared in their original language. The report provided a summary in English of the reports that were developed in Russian language.

Task 4. Final report

In this task the Contractor prepared the final report (Deliverable 4) that summarized the work done