Russia Is Set to Propose Stricter Rules for Reacto
Published: April 28, 2011
MOSCOW — Pointing contritely to the example of their own industry’sfailures at Chernobyl, Russian officials have announced details of whatis emerging as their main response to the disaster in Japan: a proposalto create an international regulatory framework for nuclear power.
Power plants would become safer if the 29 countries that operate themaccepted common and binding safety standards, Sergei V. Kiriyenko, thedirector of the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, said at abriefing for journalists Wednesday in Moscow.
These countries should also commit to detailed procedures for releasinginformation about a leak, given the propensity of radiation to floatacross borders, Mr. Kiriyenko said.
The third proposal calls for governments to commit to taking the lead inresponding to accidents. That would supplant the role typically takenby the operator or owner of a power plant. Governments, under theproposal, would intervene once a disaster passed Level 4 on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ’seven-level scaleof nuclear disasters. Level 4 is defined as an “accident with localconsequences,” while Level 5 is an “accident with wider consequences.”
In laying out these ideas, which Russia plans to present to the Group of 8industrialized nations at a meeting this spring in France, Mr.Kiriyenko elaborated on a proposal announced Tuesday by the Russianpresident, Dmitri A. Medvedev, at a ceremony observing the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
The setting for that ceremony, near the ruins of the reactor, couchedthe Russian proposal as a magnanimous effort — the latest of many — toshare the lessons of Chernobyl with a world at risk of nuclear blunders.Russia is also deeply invested in the continued global expansion ofnuclear power, because it exports uranium fuel and reactor technology.
Vast commercial interests are tied up in the continued adoption ofnuclear power and development of reactors, particularly in emergingmarkets, which are the primary customers of Russia’s nuclear exports.Those business prospects help make Russia particularly committed toimproving safety, rather than letting demand disappear in a din ofprotests against nuclear power.
The Russians say they are now building more nuclear power plants thanany other country, or 15 of the 60 new reactors under constructionaround the world today.
Rosatom says it has an additional 30 firm orders for reactors and plans to sell more.
Rosatom sells reactors for $2 billion to $5 billion. A subsidiary, Tvel,exports about $3 billion worth of low-enriched uranium fuel each year,or about 17 percent of global demand.
Some of that market is already drying up. Germany will close seven agingplants ahead of schedule, and Italy has extended indefinitely amoratorium on building plants.
Mr. Medvedev’s proposal, though announced in Chernobyl, may have beenaimed at seizing some initiative in the public debate to restoreconfidence in the technology, more than at making a significantcontribution to safety.
The proposal is intended to amend several decades-old global treaties,like the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of1963, to render International Atomic Energy Agency safety standardsbinding on the countries with civilian nuclear power plants.
Jeremy Gordon, an analyst with the World Nuclear Association,a trade group in London, said most national nuclear regulators alreadyadhered to International Atomic Energy Agency standards, making itunclear why they would need to be made binding.
“Anybody who is using nuclear power in a serious way is already wellwithin those guidelines,” he said. Of the Russian proposal, he added, “Icould not put my finger on a concrete change that would make.”
For now, safety recommendations set by the International Atomic EnergyAgency, the Vienna-based group known for its work to prevent theproliferation of bomb-making knowledge and materials, are voluntary formost countries. This is in contrast to nonproliferation rules, which areenforced by agency inspections and come under treaty obligations.