Creating a comprehensive, efficient, and sustainable nuclear regulatory structure. A Process Report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Material Protection, Control and Accounting Program

This paper describes the strategies and process used by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Regulatory Development Project to restructure its support for MPC&A regulations in the Russian Federation. The Regulatory Development Project adopted a project management approach to defining, implementing, and managing an effective nuclear regulatory structure. This approach included defining and developing the regulatory documents necessary to provide the Russian Federation with a comprehensive regulatory structure that supports an effective and sustainable MPC&A Program in Russia. This effort began in February 2005, included a series of three multi-agency meetings in April, June, and July, and culminated in August 2005 in a mutually agreed-upon plan to define and populate the nuclear regulatory system in the Russian Federation for non-military, weapons-usable material. This nuclear regulatory system will address all nonmilitary Category I and II nuclear material at the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), the Russian Agency for Industry (Rosprom), and the Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport (FAMRT) facilities; nuclear material in transport and storage; and nuclear material under the oversight of the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervisory Service of Russia (Rostechnadzor). The Russian and U.S. MPC&A management teams approved the plan, and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) NA-255, Office of Infrastructure and Sustainability (ONIS), is providing funding. The Regulatory Development Project is managed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy’s NNSA.