Institutional & technical support to the Federal NRA of Russia and its TSOs to develop capabilities of transferred Western European safety principles and practices

full title: R3.01/04 - Institutional and technical support to the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the RF and its TSOs to develop their capabilities on the basis of transferred Western European safety principles and practices (ref AP 7.1.3.1)

Russia is the only country of the former Soviet Union involved in all aspects of nuclear power, from uranium mining to plant design, power generation and spent fuel reprocessing. 12 out of 31 operating nuclear power units are of the first generation (designed before 1973). In 2004 it is foreseen that they will reach the end of their initial design lifetime (30 years) in the next coming years. Russia has a policy of operating these units beyond their original design lifetime, on the basis of safety and economic assessments.

During operation of nuclear propelled ships a substantial amount of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste have been accumulated. Therefore it has been recognised that safe handling and storage of nuclear spent fuel and radioactive waste is an urgent task to be solved in the near future.Therefore it has been recognised that safe operation of NPPs and other nuclear facilities and emergency preparedness are of high importance in order to protect personnel and population in case of accidents.
Rostechnadzor was designated as the Federal safety regulatory authority for use of atomic energy. Since it was established, ROSTECHNADZOR is supported by different international organisations. Since 1994, a TACIS multi-annual assistance programme to Rostechnadzor is in place. This assistance aims to transfer EU regulatory methodology to help building and strengthening of an independent and competent regulatory body. An important task is the promotion of an EU-style licensing system.

The main objective of the project was to develop a technical project of modernisation of the Information and Analytical Centre (IAC), which is part of the Rostechnadzor’s system for emergency response and monitoring of nuclear and radiation safety state of the nuclear facilities and installations. The project focused on Regulatory Assistance, including functional development of Rostechnadzor.

During the project of the current state of the “Analytical and Information Centre of Rostechnadzor” was assessed. This assessment covered technical, organisational and legal aspects. General requirements for the system of emergency response and monitoring of nuclear and radiation safety state describing all relevant requirements for the improved Information and Analytical Centre of Rostechnadzor have been established. The requirements during emergency mode were defined based on the identified tasks (collection and processing of information and data, assessment of the emergency situation, assessment of the emergency response actions, reporting). Western experts suggested to IBRAE a similar approach for the normal daily mode. Western experts gave a special presentation on the following topics:

• defining the use of the facility areas during office hours - outside office hours, operability rules and policy;
• arranging of the space (restricted, shared area etc) ;
• equipment operability and availability;
• securing the operation incl. the back-up electrical power systems;
• cooling/heating, ventilation, acoustics, lighting;
• physical protection;
• ergonomics;
• communication systems (phone, videos etc.).

Finally the report presenting the technical project of modernization of the IAC has been prepared. The report compiles all elements to upgrade the Rostechnadzor IAC to a modern centre of emergency response. As a result of this project, Rostechnadzor gained all the necessary elements (including estimation of the required resources) to start the implementation of the modernisation project of its Information and Analytical Centre.