Joint Management Unit (JMU) in Moscow for the Management of the Nuclear Safety Instrument in the Russian Fedration Project R7.01/08

In the Memorandum of Understanding between the EC and Minatom, signed in 1995, it was agreed to establish the Joint Management Unit to assist the EC in the effective implementation of the TACIS programme and individual projects in Russia in the nuclear safety field and to facilitate the cooperation between the beneficiaries of the TACIS programme and the Commission as well as its Contractors.

The Joint Management Unit’s main role was to facilitate the implementation of the TACIS programme in Russia and to foster the ownership of Russian projects with all Russian actors involved. The actual establishment of the Joint Management Unit came into effect on 15 December 1997 and it remained in operation continually up to and including the present contract.

The Joint Management Unit operated in a working environment with numerous stakeholders, including:

Rosatom;
Russian ministries concerned by the EC nuclear safety projects in Russia;
Local and regional authorities;
Rosenergoatom, responsible for operating all Russian NPPs and the NPPs themselves;
Operators of other nuclear facilities in Russia, including waste treatment and storage facilities (e.g. RADON, RosRAO network);
Rosteknadzor, responsible for all regulatory and inspection functions regarding nuclear safety in Russia;
Emercom, the Academy of Sciences of Russia;
European Commission EuropeAid Co-operation Office;
European Commission JRC – The Joint Research Centre at Petten, the Netherlands;
European Commission Delegation in Moscow;
Russian design institutes and specialised organisations;
European Union nuclear utilities providing EC funded On-Site Assistance at Russian NPPs;
European Union Contractors, subcontractors and Consultants implementing the projects of the TACIS programme;
Local subcontractors.
The 2004 Administrative Reform of the Government of the Russian Federation led to the reorganisation of Minatom to form the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) with a renewed mandate.

In December 2007, the Partner organisation Federal Agency Rosatom was restructured. In accordance with the new Federal Law of 01/12/07 the Federal Agency Rosatom was transformed to a State Atomic Energy Corporation with the same name "Rosatom". The Corporation retained most of the management functions of the Federal Agency and was given responsibility for the implementation of the nuclear energy programme of the Russian Federation; specifically of nuclear energy production (AtomEnergoProm) and three other divisions for nuclear safety, nuclear science, and defence related applications.

All commercial plants, enterprises, organisations and institutes of the nuclear industry were consolidated by the Decree of the RF President of 27.04.2007 into the Joint Stock Company “AtomEnergoProm”. All shares (100%) of AtomEnergoProm were transferred to the State Corporation “Rosatom”, which was intended to facilitate greater coordination of planning and funding for realising the ambitious Russian nuclear programme.

The Corporation Rosatom became the Partner of the EC programme for nuclear safety co-operation.

From 2007 onwards the European Commission continued its activities in the domain of Nuclear Safety through a new instrument; the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC), which replaced the TACIS programme after its last programme year in 2006.

However, the Russian Federation and the European Commission did not reach an agreement on the new cooperation under the INSC. As a consequence no new projects could be initiated other than extension of OSA contracts at some NPP sites in order to oversee the completion of ongoing TACIS equipment supply projects. Nevertheless, the implementation of previously programmed TACIS nuclear safety projects would continue for some time as the TACIS 2005 and TACIS 2006 Action Programmes were still being prepared for implementation and earlier TACIS projects were still in the contract implementation phase.

To facilitate the project management cycle of the programmed and ongoing projects of the TACIS programme in the field of Nuclear Safety in Russia and to continue to explore the possibilities for a continued cooperation with the Russian federation under the INSC, the EC decided to maintain the Joint Management Unit (JMU), which was a major supporting structure for the implementation of the TACIS nuclear safety programme and played an important role in liaising between the EC and the stakeholder institutions within the Russian Federation.

The objective of the Joint Management Unit was to provide assistance in the project definition and development and to facilitate the coordination required to solve all the specific issues linked to the project implementation. In particular, the Joint Management Unit had to support the Russian partner in taking an increasing role in the management of the implementation of the ongoing projects.

The specific objectives of the contract were:

to provide assistance to the EC and to Rosatom in the project cycle management of the EC nuclear safety programme in Russia;
to maintain a website of the JMU as an information exchange system regarding the various EC nuclear safety projects in preparation and in implementation and regarding the results and experience feedback from completed projects.
to provide assistance to Rosatom and to the EC to prepare a possible future cooperation under the new Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation and to set up the new programme management structures in Russia to implement the activities under the new instrument.

In order to meet the objectives the Joint Management Unit has performed the following activities during the implementation of the contract:

establishing and maintaining the JMU office;
provision of administrative, logistical and technical services to the EC, and Rosatom headquarters and NPPs;
keeping the EC and the Russian side up-to-date on progress of TACIS nuclear safety projects, the preparations for the new Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation and on other nuclear safety related issues in Russia;
developing and maintaining an improved understanding by JMU staff of AidCo/DEVCO project cycle management and TACIS rules and procedures;
dissemination of information on TACIS nuclear safety projects to the respective stakeholders, including managing and updating of a project database as well as the JMU website for dissemination of information on the EC nuclear safety programme;
assisting Rosatom and the EC to identify priority projects for the first years of programming within the new Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation;
preparing periodic reports;
attending relevant project and programme meetings;
providing general administrative assistance to EuropeAid’s Nuclear Safety Unit and to Rosatom as needed.
In the event, the Russian government did not sign the financing agreements for the 2007 and 2008 Annual Programmes of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation that had been prepared with projects to be implemented in Russia. Those projects were consequently cancelled. However, much groundwork was performed by the Commission in order to prepare these annual programmes and in order to secure the signature of the financing agreements by the Russian authorities, and the JMU provided its assistance as envisaged in the contract in support of all these activities. The only new projects programmed and implemented in the ensuing years were this contract for the JMU and contracts to extend the On-Site Assistance at some NPPs (Kola, Kalinin, Smolensk, Beloyarsk and Novovoronezh).

The contract took effect on 18 November 2009 and had a duration of 24 months.