TAREG 01/01 Support operational safety

The project concerns the provision of policy and technical advice for preparation of the regulatory component of TACIS 2003-2005 including the definition of projects that will strengthen the capabilities of beneficiary NRAs and their TSOs and promote the western type licensing.

The project should provide the Commission i.e. the EuropeAid Co-operation Office, with status reports on nuclear regulatory matters in the following beneficiary states Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Ukraine. It should provide support to the definition of the EC future policy on issues related to assistance to NRAs and their TSOs in the countries mentioned above. Drafts should be prepared of detailed proposals for projects in the field of regulatory and TSO co-operation with beneficiary countries.

A report on the assessment of the contribution of the TACIS regulatory assistance programmes on the improvement of the nuclear regulatory system and regulatory culture in the RF and the NIS should be prepared for the Commission i.e. the EuropeAid Co-operation Office. The report should include measurable/verifiable indicators.

1. Provision of policy and technical advice

Regarding the Advice on the overall strategy for regulatory and TSO assistance/cooperation towards Eastern European NRAs and its TSOs the proposal for the nuclear regulatory element for the EC Strategy for 2007 and subsequent years was provided in time for the EC discussions in 2006.
The Country Status Reports (CSRs) were established based on the information available and on best knowledge of the experts involved. The reports evaluate the future needs for assistance and technical support (definition of tools and technical know-how to be transferred, definition of on-the-job training actions), their relevance, feasibility and sustainability. They defined needs for real case technical evaluations as well as the various licensing actions to be carried out by the beneficiary within the time frame considered, giving a specific emphasis for licensing of TACIS funded projects. Information on topics, contents and time schedule for implementation of the EC funded industrial projects were collected to investigate these needs. The reports include an executive summary, in a form suitable for publication.

The experts involved in the project prepared technical inputs for the preparation of the TACIS “Nuclear Safety” Action Programme for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 (regulatory component). Where necessary, missions to the beneficiary country were organised to allow the Country Teams to understand its needs for the TACIS budget year.

The experts involved in the project prepared technical inputs and defined the methodology for projects strengthening the NRAs and TSOs of the countries. Among others, the TACIS on-site assistance projects to nuclear operators were reviewed with a view to define projects to assist beneficiary NRAs in the associated licensing of safety related modernization measures. This included the preparation of detailed technical inputs and definition of the methodology for those projects. The output of the technical activities referred to above were the so-called Technical Project Description Sheets (TPDS, detailed technical description) needed to prepare and to launch contracts of RA and TSO type referred to TACIS Nuclear Safety Action Programmes. In order to provide the most updated documents, the TPDS were developed in accordance to the schedule of the EC for launching the respective contracts for RA and TSO support.

2. Assessment of the improvement of nuclear safety in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus Georgia and Kazakhstan

In order to produce an objective evaluation of the impact of the TACIS assistance to the regulators and their technical support organizations, a qualitative and a qualitative assessment has been performed by nuclear EC experts who are very familiar with the situation in the concerned country and who have regular contacts with the nuclear installations, design institutes, architect engineers as well as with the other donors. The qualitative assessment consisted of evaluating the response to the recommendations made during the exploratory missions organized by the EC. The quantitative assessment was based on a global evaluation of the regulator and its TSOs, using “direct indicators of nuclear regulatory efficiency and effectiveness” which were developed by the OECD/NEA. These indicators were slightly adapted to the specific country situation and a link was made with the recommendations mentioned before.

The methodology to assess the effect of the implemented projects on the improvement of the nuclear regulatory system and regulatory culture comprising qualitative and quantitative elements has been developed. Its qualitative part is based on the methodology used to perform the impact assessment for the RF regulatory authority in the frame of project RF/RA/05. The analysis of the methodology showed that this approach can be used without major modifications as the „Methodology of the qualitative assessment of performance of the nuclear regulatory system and the regulatory culture (and the performed assistance)” in the frame of the TAREG 01/01 project. The second – quantitative - element of the assessment evaluated the impact of assistance programs by means of measurable/verifiable indicators, as explicitly requested in the ToR of the project. The indicators for the assessment were based on the “direct indicators of nuclear regulatory efficiency and effectiveness” as developed in a pilot project of the OECD/NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (Report NEA No. 3669, 2004).

For the application in the TAREG 01/01 project the indicators have been slightly modified. An indicator has been added, for the independence of the regulator from unjustified external influences. Although the indicators do not address all activities of TACIS Regulatory Assistance Programmes in detail, they provide quite a comprehensive picture of the current effectiveness and efficiency of the regulators and their TSOs in comparison with the former status (1992 resp. 1997). Work performed by the IAEA on the assessment of regulatory effectiveness has been considered in modifying the indicators.
It was not seen to be practicable to perform the assessment for the regulatory bodies and the TSOs separately, not only for the reason that the TSOs did not yet exist in 1992. Therefore the assessment was performed for the regulatory bodies including the services from the TSOs.

The assessment by the qualitative and quantitative methods has produced consistent results. The quantitative method has also produced a set of sustainable improvements which can be measured or observed by any independent observer. It also identified areas which should be considered in the future support programs to the concerned countries in general.

The project presents the impact of the TACIS assistance programmes on the regulators and their technical support organizations. It also proposes continuation of the assistance in particular areas. Country specific reports for Russia, Ukraine and Armenia have been provided by the project for this purpose.