Transfer of western regulatory methodology

A Consortium of Western Regulators (CWR) gave assistance to the nuclear safety regulatory authority PROMATOMNADZOR in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection based on the results of an Exploratory Mission

The Project Description per task:

1. Assistance in the field of legislation and regulations

German and Belarusian sides have exchanged information on the actual status of legislation and regulations in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection. Comments by German experts on a draft of the Belarusian Law "On the utilization of nuclear energy and radiation protection" were discussed.

2. Review of the system of notification, registration, licensing and inspection in the field of radiation protection including aspects of organisational and administrative structures

During a study visit in Stockholm, experts of the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute presented on the Swedish system of notification, registration, licensing and inspection including aspects of organisational and administrative structures. Information was also given on the Swedish radiation protection and nuclear power legislation and regulations including the Swedish implementation of Council Directives on radiation protection.

The following recommendations were made:

• Officials responsible for international communications concerning nuclear emergency information and illicit trafficking should be given necessary training in relevant English international terminology in this field.
• The planned establishment of an intranet connecting central and regional units of Promatomnadzor dealing with nuclear safety and radiation protection should be given high priority.
• The construction of a computerised record of doses of exposed workers could be facilitated by studying similar records and routines already established in other countries.
• The licensing requirements should be extended to cover the use of all radiation sources for medical purposes at hospitals.
• Routines for licensing should be rationalised in order to allow more rapid handling of applications.
• In order to promote the establishment of laboratories for testing and certification of radiation equipment, training at well established testing laboratories should be made available for Belarusian specialists.
• In order to enhance the quality of the supervision in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection the existing structure should be upgraded.
• Training of inspectors for specialist levels of competence should be organised in order to achieve a higher quality of supervision.

3. Assistance in the field of radioactive waste management including education and training

A training course and technical visit to Studsvik, including a number of issues on waste management practice in Sweden (general principles, treatment and handling practices, radiation protection, measurement techniques, quality assurance etc.) were presented by Swedish experts.

4. Assistance in setting up of an educational national system in the field of radiation protection

During workshops in Berlin and in Minsk, experts of the Landesanstalt f r Personendosimetrie und Strahlenschutzausbildung (LPS) have given an overview of the contents of special courses for persons who are responsible for radiation protection in Germany.

5. Assistance in the field of implementation of methods for measurement of transuranium elements in soil

Workshops were organised to:

• improve the quality of the methods and practices, used by the Belarusian laboratories participating to this project, to measure Am-241 and the isotopes of Plutonium in soil samples.
• to assess the available equipment in the Belarusian laboratories to measure Americium and transuranium elements,
• to estimate the necessary equipment for the Belarusian laboratories to measure Americium and transuranium elements.

The last results of measurements of americium and long half life actinides elements show that in particular areas of the South East of Belarus, the Am-241 contamination of soil is equivalent to the plutonium contamination of soil and greater than 3.7 kBq.m-2 . This level of contamination defines the legal status of a zone as obligatory resettlement zone.

6. Assistance in the field of radioactive and nuclear material transport

In agreement with the Belarus specialists in charge of radioactive transport and of nuclear material, meetings were organised to:

• present to the French participants of the project the organisation of the control of the safety of the radioactive and nuclear material transport in Belarus (PROMATOMNADZOR),
• present the inventory of the sources of radioactivity in Belarus,
• present the transport of radioactive and nuclear material in Belarus,
• present to the Belarus participants of the project the organisation of the safety of the radioactive and nuclear material transport in France,
• organise a visit of the facilities of a medical radioactive sources production company (CIS-BIO, ORIS Group) and particularly the installations for the packaging,
• visit the COGEMA nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in La Hague and particularly the installations of packaging for the transport at the railway terminal in Vallognes,
• present the radiation detection system and the physical protection of the transport of radioactive and nuclear material,
• hold a lecture in Minsk on the international regulations on transport of radioactive and nuclear materials for the technical and administrative staff involved in the nuclear and radioactive material transport.