Kazakhstan enacts radioactive waste management lawKazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a bill into law on radioactive waste management and accompanying amendments.The documents were published in official media outlets on Wednesday.The law aims to devise a comprehensive system of state regulation in the field of radioactive waste and ensure long-term protection of the population and the environment from radiation exposure. Current legislation contains separate provisions regarding radioactive waste, but they are scattered across various laws and do not form a unified legal system. This resulted in legal gaps emerging in matters of accounting, storage, transportation, disposal, and long-term monitoring.The enacted law defines the key concepts, objects, and entities in the field of radioactive waste management, identifies the types of radioactive waste and their sources, establishes the legal status of radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities, and sets up mechanisms for state accounting and oversight.The direct ban on the imports, placement and scrapping of foreign radioactive waste in Kazakhstan is a crucial provision of the document, which is aimed at safeguarding environmental sovereignty, national interests and security.The document clearly delineates the powers of state bodies. Specifically, the government makes decisions to build and shut down radioactive waste disposal facilities. The authorized body carries out licensing, supervision, and state control.One of the key innovations is the establishment of the institution of a national operator for radioactive waste management, which is tasked with organizing the collection, transportation and processing of radioactive waste; designing, building and operating storage and disposal facilities; processing and conditioning waste; and maintaining a state register of radioactive waste.The Kazakh president also signed the accompanying laws on amendments and addenda to certain legislative acts on radioactive waste management and on amendments to the Subsoil and Subsoil Use Code regarding radioactive waste management.These amendments, among other things, eliminate duplicate provisions. Furthermore, provisions allowing license holders to use subsoil plots for the storage and disposal of radioactive waste are dropped from the Subsoil and Subsoil Use Code that will ensure the integrity, consistency, and systemic nature of legal regulation in this area. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX