Challenges in the Nuclear Legacy Regulation

The nuclear legacy covers such military and industrial facilities, which do not comply with the upto-date requirements for nuclear and radiation safety, and sites contaminated following the past nuclear activities and uranium mining. In terms of the environmental safety, the most significant are consequences of the defense activity and largescale radiological accidents: legacy contaminations in the Urals – Techa River and Kyshtym (past activity of the PA “Mayak”), sites for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste (RW) temporary storage originated from the dismantled nuclear submarines in the Russian Northwest and Far East. The nuclear legacy includes numerous territories in Russia and ex-Soviet republics affected by the uranium mining and milling facilities. The main current problem is the lack of comprehensive regulatory and legal framework in the existing legislation on the nuclear legacy management to implement principles aimed at prevention of harmful impact of such legacy sites on the environment and human health, reduction of the burden to the next generations. Russia plays an active role in the nuclear legacy regulation, which consists mainly of limiting generation of new nuclear legacy specific problems or, in other words, elimination of new nuclear legacy appearance. The basis for the nuclear legacy regulation is its regulatory and legal support including the radioactive waste classification, requirements for limiting contents of the fissile materials in wastes, long-term storage and final isolation of waste. The FMBA’s position on this issue has actively been represented at the IAEA International Forum on the regulatory supervision of the nuclear legacy sites, where Russia is a leader of the working group “Enhancement of the regulatory infrastructure”.