Vladimir Slyomin

About a year ago the U.S. newspaper The Washington Post published an article headlined ”Components of the dirty bomb” expressing concern over Russian radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG). These small plants, whose operation is based on disintegration of radioactive strontium, are used in uninhabited places to power lighthouses, radio beacons, weather stations and other remotely installed equipment. American reporters found out that there are too many such sites on Russia’s territory and that they are not securely guarded. As a result, potential terrorists can get an access to radioactive materials quite easily, they wrote. According to the newspaper’s data, the total level of RTGs’ radioactivity reaches almost 100 million curies. And this is really frightening, if one is to recall that the activity of radionuclides that fell out on earth during the breakdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant amounted to about 50 million curies.
The publication in the Washington Post was quoted many times in the Russian press and forced officials to make explanations, which, however, failed to fully calm down the public. So, what is the situation now with these and other sources of high radiation hazard?

A

t present, the State Committee for Supervising Nuclear and Radiation Safety under the President of the Russian Federation (GosAtomNadzor of Russia) is the main controlling body and coordinating center dealing with the use of radioactive materials. As the Committee’s head Yuri Vishnevsky says, it is the most important task "to create an effective system that will provide the citizens, the society and the State with a comprehensive protection from the threat of inadmissible radiation poisoning".
The list of GosAtomNadzor’s responsibilities is impressive:
– setting criteria of safety, its standards and rules;
– establishing licensing procedures and issuing licenses to companies and organizations;
– conducting inspections of commercial and noncommercial installations that produce and use nuclear materials and nuclear power;
– applying sanctions in cases of violating requirements of nuclear and radiation safety;
– making research studies of nuclear and radiation safety;
– keeping state agencies and the population informed of changes in the situation with nuclear and radiation safety.
Controlling enterprises connected with nuclear problems, underlies the Committee’s activity. It should be noted that to arrange such checks is a complicated task. There are about 7,500 facilities in Russia, which are subject to a constant control. Among them are 17 industrial enterprises of the nuclear fuel cycle, 56 scientific research and design institutes as well as organizations that provide transportation and storage of nuclear materials. There are also nuclear power plants having 30 operating power-generating units, one unit under construction and 4 units being decommissioned. Besides, there are 85 research nuclear installations, about 20 nuclear power units at seagoing ships and their life-supporting facilities.
Since these checks require a fundamental scientific and technical backup, the Committee has a special subdivision called the Scientific and Engineering Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety.
In 2002 specialists of GosAtomNadzor conducted around 11,000 inspections and the efficiency of their efforts is growing. Not only the total number of violations has been down. Cases of ignored unfulfilled instructions by controlling agencies have also considerably decreased (by 3 times). At the same time certain negative trends have been discovered. For example, controlling inspections of research facilities permitted to make a general conclusion that "most violations are the result of the deficient system of personnel training and retraining".
It would be too early, of course, to claim that the system of controlling the use of nuclear technologies on Russia’s territory has already been put in a perfect working order. But, anyway, GosAtomNadzor’s activity is increasingly becoming a serious barrier to violations in this area.