Safety of nuclear technologies

To ensure nuclear and radiological safety of nuclear weapons at every stage of their life cycle, including development, manufacture, operation, dismantling and disposal has always been and remains to be a national priority.

Nuclear safety of the weapons complex is provided due to:

• effective management and control of operations to comply with nuclear safety requirements as specified in the existing standards and regulations;
• maintenance of equipment and accessories, safety features and controls, overpacks, buildings and operation rooms, vehicles and roads;
• highly professional and disciplined personnel, and maintaining the required standard of safety;
• trained and well-equipped forces to preclude and mitigate the consequences of any emergencies potentially caused by hazardous nuclear operations.

The safety of nuclear components and nuclear weapons keeps improving, and computerized systems are deployed for nuclear materials accounting and control, and upgrades are made in the physical protection system.

The administrative and technical procedures as used today are sufficient to ensure against a nuclear warhead exploding in any operation phase or abnormal environment. The nuclear warhead safety is now up to that of conventional weapons.

Further activities in this area are to provide better protection of the nuclear devices and their components from terrorist actions, man-caused accidents and disasters, as well as effective status monitoring and location of the nuclear devices.
At present, safety containers have been developed that meet the safety requirements by international and national standards. Their design is based on the latest achievements in science and engineering and makes use of unique materials such as glass-fiber plastics, ceramics, heat-insulation materials, cermet, etc.

In order to handle potential accidents of radiological consequence, a relevant professional division has been set up at the Institute and named Emergency Response Center (ERC), which is part of the Rosatom Emergency Service as a federal-level asset. The ERC is certified for rescue and recovery operations subject to the procedures established in the Russian Federation.

The ERC is provided with facilities needed for radiological and technical survey, radiation and weather monitoring, handling of abnormal items to reduce the hazard and moving them to disposal or recovery location, decontamination and personnel cleanup.