A major activity in the implementation of Project 60, the Regulatory Workshop, took place on line (WEBEX) on 27 and 28 October 2021.The aim of the Regulatory workshop was to follow up on the review of the laws are regulation of all of the participation countries, and to examine their appropriateness for the nuclear security provision. The Workshop aimed to help African partners understand the comprehensiveness and complexity of the nuclear security regime, and to reflect these traits in the respective laws and regulations.
The ENCO Experts’ presentations provided an overview of cross-cutting issues that are of relevance to all countries. Particular attention was paid to those aspects that we identified as weak points, and need to be addressed in order to establish an effective national nuclear security regime that communicates efficiently with other parts of the State’s security system (e.g. threat assessment). On the other hand, the national security legislation needs to comply with international non-proliferation standards (e.g. accounting and control of material, etc.).
ENCO Senior Legal Expert Maya Boskovic provided a summary of generic gaps identified through the review of national nuclear security legislation of the P60 Partner countries and indicated possible ways for overcoming them. An array of laws and institutions were surveyed that underpin the nuclear security regime i.e., synergies that must be created and overlaps to be avoided (e.g., threat assessment, confidentiality of information, trustworthiness verification, etc.) In is noteworthy that major deliverables from Project 60 became the Tables of Compliance – for Laws and for Regulations – that help Partner countries amend existing or developing new legislation.
ENCO Managing Director Bojan Tomic presented the theme of categorization of materials and assignment of security levels/physical protection levels, attributing particular attention to security levels in transport, the most vulnerable stage of treatment of nuclear material.
Project 60 Key Expert Vladimir Rukhlo explained to the audience how threat assessment is conducted in practice applying risk informed approach and graded approach. He underlined the importance of national registers of radioactive materials within the State’s system of accounting and control.
In view of the importance of the subject matter, the Workshop
attracted the attention of the Heads of the nuclear/radiological regulatory bodies, legal experts as well as senior staff of the security services, law enforcement agencies, transport (of dangerous goods) authorities, disaster management, etc.
