R3.03/01 Licensing procedures

This project was a follow-up of the project RF/TS/07. Its overall objective was to develop and establish a specific licensing programme and requirements for waste management facilities and provide support in the licensing process to review the safety reports of an existing near surface waste disposal facility. This project concerned more specifically the “Radon” radioactive waste disposals which were operating with reference to the past licensing framework, in which a complete and adequate safety assessment was not required.

The specific objectives of the project were:

• To assist RF Gosatomnadzor (the Russian Regulatory Body) in examining the current status of the management of radioactive waste at the Radon facilities including the current license conditions.
• To assist RF Gosatomnadzor in developing an appropriate re-licensing procedure for these facilities taking into account the licensing practice already existing in Russia, the Western practice and the international recommendations.
• To assist RF Gosatomnadzor in defining objectives, content and detailed requirements for safety case (or report) to be submitted for re-licensing.
• To transfer the western know how in licensing of near surface disposal facilities and in long term safety analysis.
• To assist RF Gosatomnadzor in reviewing a preliminary Safety Report for a specific Radon facility (the "Sergiev Posad storage and conditioning centre").
• To put forward recommendations for future updating of license conditions (e.g. waste acceptance criteria) and safety upgrades for such kind of facilities.

The specific tasks of the project were:

Task 1: This task consisted in the inception of the project. The inception meeting took place in June 2004 and the Inception Report was issued in August 2004.

Task 2: This task aimed to assist RF Gosatomnadzor in examining the current status of the management of radioactive waste at the Radon facilities. It resulted in a report describing the current status of all Radon facilities in Russia and in a report giving more details about the Moscow NPO Radon facility.

Task 3: This task aimed to assist RF Gosatomnadzor in developing appropriate specific licensing procedures for the existing Radon facilities. The existing licensing procedure for radioactive waste management facilities was reviewed and a procedure for the licensing of the Radon facilities was drafted.

Task 4: This task consisted in giving support to RF Gosatomnadzor in defining objectives, content and detailed requirements for safety reports to be developed and submitted for licensing of existing Radon facilities. This task resulted in a draft safety guide which defined the content and the requirements of a Safety Analysis Report (SAR) for near surface storage facilities, as well as in a regulatory review plan for the assessment of this SAR.

Task 5: This task aimed to support RF Gosatomnadzor in reviewing the SAR submitted for the facility “Sergiev Posad storage and conditioning centre”. The Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) has been drafted by the operator and reviewed by Russian and EU experts on the basis of the documents drafted under task 4. The PSAR was revised twice to take into account the different comments and recommendations. A last set of recommendations was provided and was expected to be considered in the third version of the PSAR to be submitted to RF Gosatomnadzor.

Moreover, training sessions for the Russian experts were organised in the field of licensing process, regulatory practices, safety objectives and safety evaluations.