Russian radioactive waste law signed

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has signed a federal law on radioactive waste management. The new bill establishes a legal framework for radioactive waste management in Russia and formally creates a unified state system for radioactive waste management. It introduces classification for radioactive wastes and brings Russia's national radioactive waste management system into line with the requirements of the Joint Convention on the Safe Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and on the Safe Management of Radioactive Waste, which Russia ratified in 2006. Radioactive waste management is the responsibility of Rosatom and national radioactive waste management operator RosRAO. The law includes provisions on the treatment of certain types of waste and regulates radioactive waste management activities, including a ban on the construction of new facilities for disposing of liquid wastes in geological formations. Further legislation dealing with high-level wastes is still to come.