Creating the Regulatory Base for MPC&A in the Russian Federation: Challenges and Strategy

The Russian Federal law on Use of Nuclear Energy charges the Federal Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority of Russia (Gosatomnadzor or GAN), The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (Minatom), and other agencies with the responsibility for establishing the regulatory base for nuclear materials protection, control and accounting (MPC&A). These efforts are providing the framework and incentives for an integrated, sustainable national MPC&A system. Creating the regulatory base for this system in Russia faces numerous challenges. These include limited resources, limited experience in drafting and assuring compliance with regulations, the absence of rule of law tradition and relative novelty of some aspects of MPC&A. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) projects to assist in this effort are helping out Russian partners to meet these challenges. In doing so, the security of Russia is being increased, with a concomitant increase in security of the region of the world. substantial progress has been made but much work remains to be done.