Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology


Contact Expert Group (CEG) for International Radwaste Projects in the Russian Federation*

(By Boris Semenov, CEG Executive Secretary)

Creation of the Contact Expert Group (CEG) under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency

An important objective of the International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear power related activities is to facilitate and strengthen international co-operation for the safe management of radioactive waste.

The Russian Federation has been facing a number of complicated ecological problems in the management of radioactive waste accumulated as a result of past activities in production of nuclear weapons, use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and as a result of the reductions in nuclear arms.

The radioactive waste accumulated in the Russian Federation by 1995 amounted to more than half a billion cubic meters with an activity of about two billion curies (7.4 1019 Bq.). In addition around 8500 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel with an activity of around 4 billion curies (1.5 1020 Bq.) has been stored. Of 120 nuclear submarines taken out of operation the spent nuclear fuel has been unloaded from 42 only. (In 1997 a total of about 150 nuclear submarines were listed as out of operation).

This is why in May 1995 the IAEA organised a seminar on "International Co-operation on Nuclear Waste Management in the Russian Federation", that was requested and sponsored by the Nordic countries. The participants of the seminar after comprehensive review of the situation recognised the need for setting up a contact group of experts to assist in co-ordinating their efforts. Such co-ordination would help avoid redundancy and duplication, assure that priorities are properly assessed and made known to international community and provide points of contacts to facilitate co-operation.

The Contact Expert Group (CEG) was established in September 1995 by a group of interested countries and international organisations and the Agency was asked to perform the CEG Secretariat's duties.

The Terms of Reference of the CEG state as its goals and objectives "…to enhance safety of waste management in the Russian Federation and its environs' and "..to promote international co-operative efforts aimed at resolving radioactive waste management issues, including radiation safety, environmental, technical, legal, organisational and financial matters".

The 1-st CEG meeting was held in March 1996 in Moscow and from 1 April 1996 the CEG Secretariat (1 1/2 person) has been established by the Director General at the IAEA. The 2-nd, 3-rd, 4-th, 5-th and 6-th CEG meetings were held in Vienna, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Windermere and the last one in April 1998 in Augusta, USA.

At present the CEG consists of twelve members and two observers (Figure 1) (CEG Composition). (For the latest composition please click. )

CEG Activities

One of the major CEG achievements at the first stage of its operation was the establishment of a Data Base of Co-operation Projects containing detailed information on some 170 suggested, negotiated, being implemented and recently completed projects.

The information on the projects, under 19 major topics, submitted by countries and international organisations, participating in the CEG, is collected by the CEG Secretariat in the form of the so called "Project Description Forms (PDFs). Figure 2 (Field Heading's Definititions) shows the "Field heading's Definitions" of the PDFs and Figure 3 (Project Description Form) - a sample of a filled-in PDF. The distribution of projects by topics of co-operation is presented in Figure 4 (Distribution of Projects by Topics of Co-operation).

The Data Base provided a clear picture of co-operation and is used as an useful instrument for avoiding unnecessary duplication and overlapping and for better planning of future co-operation.

The present status of co-operation projects is presented in the Figure 5 (Status of Co-operation Projects) .

Another important action in improving the efficiency of co-operation was the prioritising by the Russian Federation ministries involved, the most important high priority projects, to help concentrate efforts and financing in urgent practical areas.

The prioritised list of Russian High Priority Projects with some details, including financial, is shown in the Figure 6 (High Priority Russian Projects) .

The scope of co-operation with the RF being carried out by the CEG member countries and organisations on bi- and multilateral basis is quite broad and useful, however, as was concluded by the CEG at its meeting in January 1997, the most important high priority projects are not yet or not sufficiently covered by existing co-operation.

The CEG agreed to recommend to its member countries/organisations to concentrate, at this stage, the efforts on co-operation in the field of technological chain of nuclear submarines and icebreakers spent fuel management (spent fuel unloading, transportation to the shore, intermediate storing, transportation to "Mayak", storage at "Mayak").

The co-operation in the frame of "Lepse" project or a new project in the field of spent submarine nuclear fuel being negotiated at present by BNFL-Kvaerner-SGN-SKB Industrial Group with the relevant Russian organisations, are good examples of such undertakings.

Based on these developments the CEG concentrated at the next stage of its activity on considering in detail the waste management situation in the most pressing fields and regions of the RF and elaborating conclusions and recommendations for the CEG members directed to enhancing co-operation and solving the most urgent problems.

Thus the CEG at its 4th meeting in June of the last year focused its consideration on the North-West region of the Russian Federation with the one of the highest in the world concentrations of nuclear reactors, spent fuel and radioactive waste. This region accumulated and continues to generate the most significant amounts of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear submarines, icebreakers and NPPs and liquid and solid nuclear wastes from their operation, decommissioning as well as from different applications of radio-isotopes in science, medicine and industry.

After having reviewed reports by Russian ministries, institutes and organisations and the results of a number of specialised studies sponsored by CEG members, the Expert Group decided that it should immediately act to focus international co-operation with the Russian Federation on the situation in its North-West region.

The importance and urgency of the situation with radioactive waste management in the North-West region of the RF is also clearly reflected by the fact that 15 out of 20 "Russian High Priority Projects" are associated with the radioactive wastes accumulated or being generated in the region, however none of the above 15 projects is presently fully covered by only Russian or by Russian / co-operation partners financing (Fig. 6 ).

The RF Government has approved ten year Federal Waste Management Programme for 1996-2005, which, when realised, was supposed to solve the country's most important problems. However its realisation was extended over a rather long period of ten years, which caused serious concerns, since many of the problems require much earlier solution to avoid associated potential safety and environmental risks (spent fuel being kept at not fully decommissioned submarines, waste tanks are overfilled and consequently there is a potential threat of resumption of see dumping etc.) and this was the major reason of international co-operation efforts directed to faster the solution of most urgent problems.

However the present situation seems to be even more alarming since due to well known economical difficulties the state financing of the RF WM programmes in 1996 and 1997 was at the level of about 30% - 40% of the originally planned.

The Russian estimates of the total cost of the most urgent of the high priority projects amounts to about $ 220 million. Even if the Russian state financing of the waste management programme would raise from present 30%-40% to some 50% or even 70%, then still about $ 70 - 110 million would be required from international assistance or elsewhere even to assure the planned rate of their implementation, not speaking about their earlier realisation, which was the main objective of international co-operation efforts.

There are also some internal Russian problems, such as nuclear liability and tax exemption, which hamper or delay realisation of a number of international co-operation projects, presently at the final stage of negotiations.

An "international expert opinion", prepared by the CEG on the waste management situation in the North-West region of the Russian Federation, has been forwarded to the IAEA Director General by the CEG Chairman with the request to submit it for the consideration by the Board.

Sharing the Contact Expert Group's concern of the seriousness of the waste management situation in the North-West region of the Russian Federation and its conclusion that the most effective solution of the problems could be achieved through enhanced international co-operation, the Director General submitted the CEG paper "Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management in the North-West Region of the Russian Federation" (attachment 1 ) for the information of the Board.

Following the CEG recommendations and in order to facilitate international co-operation directed to solving the most urgent problems in the region the IAEA has brought the matter to the attention of the IAEA Member States and relevant international, particularly financial, organisations by having forwarded the referred CEG paper with a call to consider possible means of facilitating the necessary funding and co-operation in appropriate multilateral activities.

At the recent (27-29 April) CEG meeting in August, USA the Group again considered the importance to concentrate international support in solving the waste and spent fuel management problems in the RF on the most important and worthy of immediate attention needs, identified these needs more precisely and developed a consensus on "Initial (First Priority) Projects" for international co-operation on nuclear waste and spent fuel management in the Russian Federation.

The CEG agreed to recommend for international co-operation in nuclear waste and spent fuel management the following "Initial" (First Priority) projects:

The CEG recommended that work on these projects should not only be continued, but accelerated. Work on the "Lepse" in particular had been delayed by issues related to nuclear liability and taxation.

The CEG identified a number of projects which they also considered to be of the highest priority, but which were only at the stage of assessment and/or study. The CEG strongly recommended a more active programme for the implementation of these projects which are as follows:

The CEG had in mind that these recommendations would be used by the CEG member countries/organizations for directing assistance to the Russian Federation in solving its waste management problems and for possible consideration at the Summit level.

I am very glad to participate in this meeting addressing the "Radioactive Waste Management in Central & Eastern Europe" hoping that it will contribute to international activities directed to the solution of very important problems in this region, including those presented above in the Russian Federation.


* Presented to a WM Symposium, which was held in Prague, CZ on 11 - 12 June 1998.