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Chairman's Summing Up of the Eighth CEG Meeting's Major Decisions and Recommendations

(Fredrikstad, Norway, 10 - 12 May 1999)

The 8th CEG meeting, attended by 45 participants from 9 countries, 2 international organizations and the EC, took place in Fredrikstad, Norway on 10-12 May 1999.

The meeting considered three major topical issues, namely:

The results of analysis by the CEG's "Strategy Working Group" of RF documents dealing with its strategy for radwaste and spent fuel management, which are important for decisions on supporting the highest priority projects by donor countries/organizations;
Steps to be undertaken towards a development of better awareness on the part of the international leadership on radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel and associated environmental problems in the Russian Federation;
CEG organizational and financial matters.

The results of the analysis by the CEG's "Strategy Working Group" of RF documents dealing with its strategy for radwaste and spent fuel management

The CEG was presented a report by the Chairman of the "Strategy Working Group" (SWG) on the outcome of the Group's meeting that had taken place in Brussels on 26-27 April 1999. Participants of this meeting were representatives of France, Germany, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the USA.

A major part of the SWG's meeting had been a presentation and review of a report prepared for the SWG by consultants Christopher Watson (AEA Technology, UK) and Mark Dutton (NNC, UK). This, following revisions made with the assistance of representatives of Minatom and Nuclide was distributed to the CEG.

The SWG had agreed on the following:

The RF has a full strategy for spent fuel and radioactive waste management;
Because of the size and complexity of the programme and the very difficult economic conditions in Russia, realization of the programme is lagging very far behind the planning;
Because of its complexity it is difficult to convey the essential elements of the strategy to those not closely involved in its management;
Attempts to prioritize tasks without proper reference to the strategy resulted in lack of understanding;
Until potential donors can understand the strategy, funding on the scale required to make significant progress will not be forthcoming;
One way of presenting the strategy is through a series of flow charts.
(A basic flow chart had been prepared covering, in a very simple way, the different aspects of the Russian strategy and a more detailed flow chart had been constructed, covering the management of spent fuel from nuclear submarines and icebreakers).

The SWG had attempted to answer a number of questions raised in an initial draft of its report concerning the role of the CEG in this area. However, they have not been able to respond fully to the questions as to what criteria should be used to set priorities for international funding. It was strongly recommended that the CEG address this issue very soon

The SWG proposed to the CEG that it continue the task it has started by completing the flow chart it had generated for submarine spent fuel and by developing flow charts for other sources (such as spent fuel and waste from NPPs, management of "institutional wastes", etc).

considered and discussed the report and expressed its satisfaction with the quality and scope of the presented document;
noted that the WG's study has identified some issues on which the CEG considers further information from the Russian side would be helpful and
noted the Russian willingness to cooperate in providing and discussing additional information;
concluded that there is an enormous financial shortfall for the realization of the RF WM and SNF programmes, which is certainly not capable of being covered by the Russian government, if the budgets available to it remain as in recent years. To bridge the gap would require a significant expansion of the Western aid programme;
noted that there was a very urgent need to make concrete progress on tasks already started to assure donors of the feasibility of completing these. A number of members raised the "Lepse" project in this context;
requested that the SWG continue its work, in accordance to its mandate, on improving understanding of the Russian strategy and the role of the priority tasks. However, the necessity for a workshop was not agreed;
welcomed the RF member suggestion to prepare a document describing the Russian strategy on the management of SNF and RAW from decommissioned nuclear submarines, which would be circulated to the CEG members (in English) as soon as practicable and at least a month before the next CEG meeting where it would be discussed;
also welcomed the RF member's willingness to respond in particular to questions concerning the management of the SNF from nuclear submarines at that meeting.

Steps to be undertaken towards development of better awareness on the part of international leadership on radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel and associated environmental problems in the Russian Federation

The CEG, considering the WM&SNF situation in the RF as alarming and requiring significantly broader and timely international support, decided to directly approach the international leadership with a concise information on the nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel problem in Russia (possibly accompanied by the List of Highest Priority Tasks) and appeal to consider possibility of a concerted Western assistance in solving these very acute problems.

The CEG Chairman has been asked to forward the CEG message to the Summit meeting using appropriate diplomatic channels. The CEG members were requested to undertake also appropriate supportive actions.

CEG organizational and financial matters

The CEG

highly appreciating the importance of the CEG activities, decided
- to continue the CEG's and its Secretariat's activities for another two years under the same organizational and financial conditions and
- to ask the IAEA Director General to continue the IAEA support of the CEG activities in 2000-2001 under the same organizational and financial conditions and accordingly to extend the CEG Executive Secretary's contract;
approved the CEG Secretariat's Financial Report for 1998, repeating its expectations that the remaining two not yet contributing CEG members will consider voluntary joining the others in financing the CEG Secretariat operation;
appreciated commencing of operation of the CEG's World Wide Web site as approved at the previous meeting;
agreed to review regularly the status, progress, and problems with the CEG Highest Priority Tasks;
noting the mutual importance of Japan's full partnership in the CEG activities, particularly due to Japan's involvement in solving SNF and RAW problems in the Far East of the RF, suggested to its members to use appropriate diplomatic channels to encourage Japan to actively participate in the CEG activities;
suggested to its members and the CEG Secretariat to take all possible steps towards attracting more potential donors to the CEG activities;
acknowledged with gratitude the confirmation of the invitation made by Germany's CEG member to host the 9th CEG meeting and agreed to hold it on 8 to 10 November 1999. The place of the meeting to be finalized by the host country in good time before the meeting.