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In order to perfect the accounting, control, and provision of protection of nuclear materials in the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation decrees:

1.  That the (attached) Concept for a System of State Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials, presented by the Russian Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety and approved by the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy, the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense, the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense Industry, and the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs, be approved.

2.  That federal organs of executive power and organizations developing normative documents and implementing activities related to the use of nuclear materials for peaceful and defense purposes take into account the provisions of the Concept for a System of State Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials.

Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation
V. Chernomyrdin

Approved
By Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation
14 October 1996, No. 1205
 
 

1.  Introduction

The necessity of creating a system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials is caused by the potential nuclear and radiation danger they present, their high value, and also the significant influence they have on national and international security and the economic and political state of the country.

This Concept determines the purpose, goals, and principles of accounting and control of nuclear materials and the main requirements for their accounting and control.

This Concept was developed on the basis of Russian Federation legislation regarding handling nuclear materials and normative legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation in this same area, and takes the following into account:

•  existing Russian departmental (industrial) systems of accounting and control of nuclear materials;
•  IAEA recommendations for national systems of accounting and control of nuclear materials;
•  existing international and national systems of accounting and control of nuclear materials;
•  the Russian Federation’s international obligations regarding the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

The terminology used in this Concept is defined as follows:

• "nuclear materials"--materials containing, or capable of producing, fissile (fissionable) nuclear substances;
• "special non-nuclear materials"--materials that do not contain, and cannot produce, nuclear materials, but can be used in devices designed for the explosive release of nuclear energy (a nuclear explosion);
• "nuclear installations"--structures and complexes with a nuclear reactor, including nuclear plants, ships and other floating craft, spacecraft, aircraft, or any other vehicles or transportable craft; structures and complexes with production, experimental, or research reactors, or critical or subcritical assemblies; structures, complexes, and testing grounds with nuclear charges or nuclear munitions; other structures containing nuclear materials, complexes, or installations for the production, use, reprocessing and transportation of nuclear fuel and nuclear materials;
• "nuclear weapon"--nuclear charges, nuclear munitions, and loaded nuclear munition delivery vehicles, nuclear weapons systems and nuclear weapons delivery vehicles;
• "nuclear material" storage facilities--facilities and structures that are designed for the storage of nuclear materials and are not considered to be nuclear installations;
• "exploiting organization"--an organization, founded in accordance with legislation of the Russian Federation and deemed fit to exploit a nuclear installation or nuclear material storage facility by the appropriate nuclear energy management organ;
• "federal norms and regulations for accounting and control of nuclear materials"--norms and regulations that establish requirements for accounting and control of nuclear materials and are included in the list approved by the Government of the Russian Federation;
• "accounting of nuclear materials"--the determination of a quantity of nuclear materials, their composition, registration, and maintenance of accounting and report documents;
• "accounting unit"--an identifiable item containing nuclear materials (having an individual number or other identification), the integrity of which is unchanged in the course of a determined time period;
• “bulk form material"--nuclear material in the form of gas, liquid, powder, or large quantity of solid objects not having individual numbers or other identification;
• "control of nuclear materials"--administrative control over the presence and transfer of nuclear materials for the purpose of preventing unauthorized use;
• "monitoring of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials"--verification of the observance of norms and regulations by authorized federal organs of executive power during the implementation of state accounting and control of nuclear materials;
• "material balance area"--an area for accounting and control of nuclear materials, territorially and administratively established within the confines of a nuclear installation or nuclear materials storage facility, in which the quantity of nuclear materials is determined (by measurement) whenever anything is moved into or out of the area, and in which a nuclear material balance sheet is kept for an established period of time;
• "physical inventory"--the process of determining the actual quantity of nuclear materials located in a material balance area;
• "nuclear materials balance sheet"--a comparative total of the registered quantity of nuclear materials and the actual quantity of nuclear materials present;
• "inventory disparity"--a disparity between the registered quantity of nuclear materials and the actual quantity of nuclear materials present.

The system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials is an element of the system of state management of the use of nuclear energy for civil and military purposes and is designed to fulfill the following objectives:

• to determine the actual quantity of nuclear materials present in their respective locations;
• to formulate, register, and maintain accounting and report documents;
• to prevent and avert the loss, unsanctioned use, and theft of nuclear materials;
• to ensure control over the observance of the Russian Federation’s international obligations regarding the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

The legislative and normative basis for the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials consists of:

• federal laws, normative regulatory acts of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation regarding the handling nuclear materials;
• federal norms and regulations for accounting and control of nuclear materials;
• industry (departmental) norms and regulations for accounting and control of nuclear materials.

The system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials is divided into two levels: federal and departmental.

The main functions of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials are the development and introduction of fundamental norms and regulations for accounting and control of nuclear materials, the accounting and control of nuclear materials, and the monitoring of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials.

At the federal level:

• state accounting and control of nuclear materials designed for civil use is implemented by the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy;
• state accounting and control of nuclear materials designed for military use is implemented by the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy and the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense.

At the level of the exploiting organization involved in the production, storage, or use of nuclear materials, accounting and control is implemented by that organization’s administration.

At the federal level, monitoring of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials is implemented by:

• the Russian Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, for nuclear materials designed for civil use;
• the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense, for nuclear materials designed for nuclear weapons and military nuclear power installations.

6.  Main Operating Principles of the System of State Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials

In the Russian Federation, nuclear and special non-nuclear materials are subject to accounting and control in accordance with the Appendix.

The system of state control and accounting of nuclear materials provides for:

• the placement under accountancy, conducting of accounting, and removal from accountancy of nuclear materials, regardless of their chemical composition, physical state, or radiation state (fresh or irradiated);
• the implementation of accounting and control of nuclear materials in material balance areas in the form of accounting units or in bulk form;
• the division of nuclear materials and the material balance areas in which they are located by type and category;
• the maintenance of accounting documents, periodical reports and analyses of report data;
• the correction of accounting data only by creating a new entry in accounting documents;
• the correction of report data only by presenting new report documents;
• the implementation of accounting and control of nuclear materials on the basis of measurement results for the content and quantity of nuclear materials, apart from cases when analytical methods may be used to determine their characteristics;
• the taking of regular physical inventories in material balance areas and keeping a nuclear materials balance sheet according to inventory results;
• the evaluation of the results of nuclear materials balance sheets by comparing the amount of the inventory discrepancy with the maximum allowable discrepancy for each material balance zone;
• the verification of the organization and implementation of accounting and control of nuclear materials by federal organs of executive power, implementing accounting and control of nuclear materials on the federal level, management of the use of nuclear power, state monitoring of nuclear and radiation safety in accordance with the scope of their authority;
• the verification of the documentation provided by the shipper of nuclear materials (to be done by the receiver).

• the minimum amount of nuclear materials that are subject to state accounting and control;
• the procedure for placement under accountancy, conducting of accounting, and removal from accountancy of nuclear materials;
• the categories of nuclear materials and the measures for their accounting and control, depending on the content and quantity of nuclear materials located in material balance areas;
• the requirements for keeping accounting documentation, frequency of presentation and volume of information contained in report documents;
• the procedure and requirements for conducting measurements of the content and quantity of nuclear materials or the use of analytical methods to determine the content and quantity of these materials;
• the procedure for organizing and taking physical inventories and their frequency and volume;
• the procedure for keeping nuclear materials balance sheets and the method for determining the maximum allowable inventory discrepancy;
• the acceptable values for discrepancies between data from the shipper and receiver concerning the presence of nuclear materials and measures to be taken if these values are exceeded;
• the requirements for the accounting and control of nuclear materials during their import or export;
• the frequency, volume, and type of verification procedures taken by federal organs of executive power implementing accounting and control of nuclear materials on the federal level, management of the use of nuclear power, state monitoring of nuclear and radiation safety.

Within the framework of the system for state accounting and control of nuclear materials and on the basis of contemporary technical equipment, the appropriate information systems are being created.

Access to information found at various levels of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials and the regime for handling the information is determined by federal law, normative regulatory acts by the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, and federal organs of executive power, within the scope of their authority.

Technical support for the creation, installation, functioning, and development of the system of state accounting and control of nuclear materials is implemented by the appropriate federal organs of executive power.

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List of Nuclear and Special Non-nuclear
Materials Subject to Accounting and Control in the Russian Federation

Nuclear Materials

• plutonium
• uranium (excluding uranium ore)
• thorium (excluding thorium ore)
• neptunium-237
• americium-241
• americium-243
• californium-252

• deuterium
• tritium
• lithium-6

Translated by Laurel Nolen, NIS Nuclear Profiles Database Research Associate, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, January 1998.   This is an unofficial translation.

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