SEC NRS took part in the Sixth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management

20.06.2018 SEC NRS employees, included in the delegation of Rostechnadzor headed by Alexey Ferapontov, Deputy Chairman of Rostechnadzor, took part in the Sixth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, that was held in the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna (Austria) within May 21 – June 1, 2018.

Anton Ponizov, Head of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities Safety Division (SEC NRS), Anatoliy Shchadilov, Deputy Head of Radiation Safety Division (SEC NRS), and Alexander Vasilishin, Researcher of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities Safety Division (SEC NRS) participated in the plenary session of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention, in the meeting devoted to discussion of the Russian Federation National Report, in the meetings of country teams, and in the meeting of the open-ended working group for discussion of proposals on the Joint Convention strengthening. SEC NRS employees took part in the topical sessions “General Safety Issues, Challenges and Social Acceptability Aspects for Highly Radioactive Waste Storage and Disposal” and “Latest Achievements and Challenges in the Field of Safe Management of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources”, as well as in the plenary sessions devoted to discussion of the results of the country teams’ meetings, the Final Report of the Meeting and the Report of the Meeting Chairman.

Delegations from 69 out of 78 Contracting Parties (IAEA member-states) to the Joint Convention took part in the Meeting, also including the representatives from the international organizations, i.e. the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the representatives from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the observers. Moreover, the two countries that signed the Joint Convention, i.e. Lebanon and Philippines, as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran, were invited to attend the Meeting as the observers of the opening plenary session and of the part of the final plenary session, when the Final Report was accepted upon the discussions.

The delegation from the Russian Federation included the representatives from the following organizations: the Permanent Delegation of the Russian Federation to the international organizations in Vienna, Rostechnadzor, the State Corporation ROSATOM, IBRAE RAS, SEC NRS, FSUE “National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management”, FSUE “MCC”, FSUE “PA “MAYAK”.

On May 24, 2018, Alexey Ferapontov, Deputy Chairman of Rostechnadzor, together with Oleg Kryukov, Director of the State Policy in the Field of Radioactive Waste, Spent Nuclear Fuel and Decommissioning of Nuclear and Radiation-Hazard Facilities of the State Corporation ROSATOM, presented the National Report of the Russian Federation on the Fulfillment of Commitments Resulting from the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

Alexey Ferapontov presented in his speech information on the state policy in spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management, on the legal and regulatory framework for safety in spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management, on creation of the Unified National System for Radioactive Waste Management, on fulfillment by the Russian Federation of the recommendations of the Fifth Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Join Convention, on the changes in the field of safety regulation in respect to spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management. The presentation highlighted in details the aspects of state safety regulation in atomic energy use, including the information on the procedures of regulatory documents development, licensing and supervision.

The second part of the report, presented by Oleg Kryukov, was devoted to the practice of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management in the Russian Federation. The presentation highlighted in details the results of practical measures aimed at improvement of the safety of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management. The particular attention was paid to creation of the centralized infrastructure for spent nuclear fuel management at the FSUE “MCC”, transportation of the collected spent nuclear fuel to the place of centralized dry storage, preparation and transportation of the defective spent nuclear fuel from RBMK to be reprocessed at the FSUE “PA “MAYAK”, creation of the underground research laboratory, as well as the current state of decommissioning of the nuclear legacy facilities and utilization of the icebreaking fleet ships and nuclear maintenance ships.

The third part of the report, presented by Alexey Ferapontov, gave answers to the questions of the Contracting Parties to the National Report of the Russian Federation. The presentation gave answers to the most significant questions, including the detection of the increased concentrations of the isotope Ru-106 in the atmosphere in September-October 2017 (the investigations of the independent international commission, established in December 2017, stated no hazard of the increased concentration of Ru-106 to the health), practice of deep disposal of liquid radioactive waste, public relations of the State Corporation ROSATOM and Rostechnadzor, and etc. This part of the report also presented the main objectives on safety improvement, faced by the Russian Federation in the field of safety in spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management.

Six reports were presented within the topical session “Latest Achievements and Challenges in the Field of Safe Management of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources” that took place on May 28, 2018. They were prepared by the representatives from Ukraine, the IAEA, the USA, Cuba, Croatia, and Morocco.

On May 29, 2018, the topical session devoted to safety, problems and social acceptability of storage and disposal of highly radioactive waste, was held. The topical session gave a platform to the Contracting Parties to share information on the achievements and current problems with regard to management of highly radioactive waste. Discussions of this topical session and in country teams in the course of the Meeting demonstrated the global attitude for development of solutions to highly radioactive waste management.

The meetings revealed the actual information on the certain activities of the Contracting Parties aimed at improvement of safety in spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management, also in the part of solution of nuclear legacy problems.

Based on the results of the held discussions it was noted, that all main objectives set for the Russian Federation at the previous meeting of the contracting Parties to the Joint Convention, i.e. spent nuclear fuel management, radioactive waste management, solution of nuclear legacy problems, have been implemented or in the process of implementation. Moreover, there were mentioned some areas of activities, where the RF competent authorities in the field of atomic energy use have gained high results for the reported period. Among them, there were noted the development of the safety requirements in special radioactive waste management, establishment of the general acceptance criteria for radioactive waste to be disposed, revision of the national safety requirements together with the revision of the relevant IAEA standards.


Meetings of the Contracting Parties to discuss the National Reports in frames of the Join Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (signed in 1997 and ratified in 2005) are held every three years. The previous Meeting took place in May 2015. The goal of the Meetings is to discuss the fulfillment by the member-states of the commitments, arising from the Joint Convention. Each Contracting Party has two sets of commitments: one is the review of its National Report by other Contracting Parties, and the other one is the review of the reports provided by the other member states, included in its country team.

The target of the Joint Convention is enhancement and maintenance of the high safety level in spent nuclear fuel management and radioactive waste management worldwide through strengthening of the national measures and international cooperation, provision of the effective means of protection against the potential hazard, prevention of radiological accidents and mitigation of their consequences.

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