Speaker
Mr
Enrique Fernando MORALES
(Autoridad Reguladora Nacional en Radioprotección (ARNR) - URUGUAY)
Description
Uruguayan Regulatory Body (ARNR) has 14 technical staff. All staff has undergone Radioprotection formation provided by IAEA and others international organizations, each in several specific fields, but all knowledge gained is shared along ARNR staff.
Even if Uruguay currently has no nuclear programme, nor uranium mines neither manufacture of materials or equipment comprised on Annex I and II of NPT Additional Protocol, the country deals with some safeguarded material, including 80 gr 239Pu and, mainly, depleted uranium used in shieldings. Uranium of other origin has also come to be safeguarded, for instance depleted uranium found along metallic scrap during routine controls.
ARNR staff with specific formation in SSAC is some 3 people, but all technical staff is aware of key issues and activities, and in fact many of the staff have performed duties related to safeguards, some in preparation of Safeguards Reports to IAEA, some in duties of seizing or transporting orphan nuclear material.
While future eventual needs of a Nuclear Power Plant have been discussed, to the moment these is no government plan referred to nuclear power. Even so, ARNR has participated in some international technical projects related to nuclear power, for instance one about competence building in nuclear reactors regulatory staff (FORO), which lead to IAEA TECDOC 1794. This Guidance included description of the basic staff required for nuclear reactors licensing, and is a major reference for ARNR should be needed. In the hypothesis of a Uruguayan nuclear power programme in the future, safeguards human resources would be a critical issue, so in this hypothesis, ARNR strategic view is optimizing use of its technical staff. This strategic view, crossed with current multi-purpose-person experience and guidance provided by TECDOC 1794, postulates giving SSAC and Safeguards competence (inside ARNR, by internal knowledge transfer) to some 3 -4 of the 28 staff dedicated to Nuclear Regulation. Their work would synergize with an hypothetical Safeguards Department including 3 or little more person, so, every regulatory duty would be addressed, optimizing the use of ARNR staff with certified Safeguards competence which is supposed to be scarce after 2020.-
| Topics | SGI3 |
|---|---|
| Which "Key Question" does your Abstract address? | SGI3.8 |
| Which alternative "Key Question" does your Abstract address? (if any) | SGI3.3 |
Primary author
Mr
Enrique Fernando MORALES
(Autoridad Reguladora Nacional en Radioprotección (ARNR) - URUGUAY)
