U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION SAFEGUARDS ASSISTANCE TO RUSSIA, KAZAKSTAN, AND UKRAINE

Since 1992, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy to help improve nuclear safeguards at both the national and facility levels in Kazakstan, Russia, and Ukraine. The NRC has focused on providing assistance to support these former Soviet Union countries in developing regulations, as well as supporting the development of licensing and inspection programs. NRC's regulatory cooperation with its counterparts in these countries is important to help ensure that safeguards measures in these countries are consistently applied in an effective and appropriate manner and maintained over time. This paper presents recent developments in the cooperative safeguards efforts between NRC and Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakstan