Russia: Nuclear Safety - Key Points From Russian President Medvedev

SOURCE APCO Worldwide

The following was released today by APCO Worldwide:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev put forward proposals to further improve international legislation on the safety of nuclear power stations.

The proposals are the result of analysis of events at the Fukushima-1 NPP in Japan and are a response to the rapid growth of civil nuclear power facilities around the world.

The initiatives propose supplementing the existing conventions and the IAEA statute with a number of provisions stipulating:

• responsibility of the state for providing a timely and adequate response to an accident in order to minimize its impact;
• the adoption of regulations for coordination and cooperation between the state, the operating organization and the supervisory agency in accident management to reduce its impact;
• the responsibility of the states using nuclear energy to ensure the level of nuclear safety is not below the level corresponding to the IAEA standards, and the existence of action plans in each country for emergencies related to the operation of nuclear power stations;
• the requirement for the countries intending to build nuclear power facilities to establish infrastructure in accordance with IAEA recommendations and with the participation of the supplier of the nuclear plant's equipment.
• additional requirements to be included in the regulations on nuclear power plant construction in seismic zones and in areas with a high risk of natural disasters, taking into account their possible compound effect.
• adopting regulations regarding the information to be provided about the accident, depending on its severity on the IAEA scale.

The above proposals of the Russian Federation on the development and safety of nuclear energy have been submitted to the IAEA and the leaders of the G8, BRICS and CIS countries.