OREANDA-NEWS. July 2, 2007. Rostekhnadzor has approved safety requirements for transuranic radioactive waste immobilization systems. This document sets principles, criteria and requirements for the design and the safe use of systems for immobilization of radioactive waste containing transuranic elements as a source of possible radiation effect on personnel, population and environment. The document says that the ceramic or mineral-type matrixes containing transuranic elements should be designed in such a way as to make the elements extraction impossible and that the material the matrixes are made of should be radiation-resistant. The glass metal packing should be safe.

Special attention is given to the protection of the environment from radiation effects, particularly, to the prevention of the reflection of photons or neutrons by the near surface layer of the atmosphere, which produces scattered radiation fields at a distance of hundreds of meters from the surface.

The requirements comply with the general nuclear safety principles, criteria and requirements, the federal nuclear safety standards and rules and IAEA recommendations.

Immobilization is placement of transuranic radioactive waste in embedded units (with their transformation into an inert radiation- and heat-resistant state) and encasement of the units in glass metal that constitutes a physical barrier between transuranic radioactive waste and environment and prevents unsanctioned access to the waste.

The requirements have been ratified by the head of Rostekhnadzor Konstantin Pulikovsky.