Nikolay Ponomaryov-Stepnoy, vice president of Kurchatov Institute

– Treatment of radioactive waste is a serious problem of nuclear power industry

On June 26 the Expert Council for Legislative Support of the Nuclear Industry of the Energy Committee of the State Duma considered draft law on treatment of radioactive waste.

Radioactive waste is the element of nuclear power engineering that must be under constant control of designers, operators and legislators. Treatment of radioactive waste is a serious problem of the nuclear power industry. That’s why it is necessary to provide it with a strong legislative basis. The Expert Council for Legislative Support of the Nuclear Industry of the Energy Committee of the State Duma is working to this end and I think that they are doing a very important job.

Today, we have lots of problems that this law can solve. For example, it says where exactly relevant facilities should be located and how relevant materials should be isolated. We also need to review the classification of radioactive waste. Today, we have high-level radioactive, mid-level radioactive and low-level radioactive waste. In fact, there are some waste products that are not very dangerous but can still be classified as radioactive waste and we should work out special regulations for them.

The law is supposed to regulate radioactive waste treatment relations not only inside our country but also with the outer world. Today, our legislation says that we should take back spent nuclear fuel from the countries whom we supply with nuclear fuel. Here too there are a number of details requiring more thorough consideration.

The law says that there should be no uncontrolled radioactive waste. It should be clearly known who owns what waste. The law envisages creation of a single system for treatment of all types of radioactive waste and for regulation of relevant relations in all sectors of the economy.

I see no obstacles to the adoption of this law and no public opposition to it. This law is aimed at improving the radio-ecological situation in our country and at protecting our population and environment from radioactive threats.