Legal and regulatory control of supervisory activities in the implementation of the physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities by the federal nuclear and radiation safety authority of Russia (Gosatomnadzor)

The physical protection system for nuclear material and facilities is designed to protect the interests of the State with regard to the safe utilization of atomic energy and must rest upon a legislative and regulatory infrastructure at the national level and the State level. Under the Federal Law on the Utilization of Atomic Energy, Gosatomnadzor has been designated the State body responsible for regulating safety in the utilization of atomic energy. Provisions are in place for the organization of development work, the adoption and entry into force of procedures and regulations for the utilization of atomic energy, the issuing of operating licences in the field of atomic energy, and the supervision of safety, including physical protection of nuclear material and facilities in the Russian Federation. The paper reviews issues relating to the setting up of the legal and regulatory infrastructure for the supervisory activities of Gosatomnadzor in the implementation of physical protection of nuclear material and facilities, pursuant to the adoption in 1995 of the Federal Law on the Utilization of Atomic Energy. The paper presents the entire system of legal and regulatory procedures for the utilization of atomic energy, which has a multilevel structure: laws, regulatory decrees of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation, federal regulations and procedures for the utilization of atomic energy, guidelines of State safety regulatory bodies, and regulations and procedures of State bodies responsible for control of the utilization of atomic energy. The paper analyses documents at each level in connection with the activities of Gosatomnadzor in the field of physical protection of nuclear material and facilities, and reviews the principal trends of the work of Gosatomnadzor in the development and improvement of the regulatory and legal infrastructure for physical protection of nuclear material and facilities.