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In the 1960s two technical bases for the Northern Fleet were created in the Russian northwest at Andreeva Bay in the Kola Peninsula and Gremikha village on the coast of the Barents Sea. They maintained nuclear submarines, receiving and storing radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. No further waste was received after 1985, and the technical bases have since been re-categorised as temporary storage sites. The handling of these materials to put them into a safe condition is especially hazardous because of their degraded state. This paper describes regulatory activities which have been carried out to support the supervision of radiological protection during recovery of waste and spent fuel, and to support regulatory decisions on overall site remediation. The work described includes: an assessment of the radiation situation on-site; the development of necessary additional regulatory rules and standards for radiation protection assurance for workers and the public during remediation; and the completion of an initial threat assessment to identify regulatory priorities. Detailed consideration of measures for the control of radiation exposure of workers and radiation exposure of the public during and after operations and emergency preparedness and response are complete and provided in sister papers. The continuing requirements for regulatory activities relevant to the development and implementation of on-going and future remediation activities are also outlined. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority supports the work, as part of the Norwegian Government's plan of action to promote improvements in radiation protection and nuclear safety in northwest Russia.

In compliance with the fundamentals of the government's policy in the field of nuclear and radiation safety approved by the President of the Russian Federation, Russia has developed a national program for decommissioning of its nuclear legacy. Under this program, the State Atomic Energy Corporation 'Rosatom' is carrying out remediation of a Site for Temporary Storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste (RW) at Andreeva Bay located in Northwest Russia. The short term plan includes implementation of the most critical stage of remediation, which involves the recovery of SNF from what have historically been poorly maintained storage facilities. SNF and RW are stored in non-standard conditions in tanks designed in some cases for other purposes. It is planned to transport recovered SNF to PA 'Mayak' in the southern Urals. This article analyses the current state of the radiation safety supervision of workers and the public in terms of the regulatory preparedness to implement effective supervision of radiation safety during radiation-hazardous operations. It presents the results of long-term radiation monitoring, which serve as informative indicators of the effectiveness of the site remediation and describes the evolving radiation situation. The state of radiation protection and health care service support for emergency preparedness is characterized by the need to further study the issues of the regulator-operator interactions to prevent and mitigate consequences of a radiological accident at the facility. Having in mind the continuing intensification of practical management activities related to SNF and RW in the whole of northwest Russia, it is reasonable to coordinate the activities of the supervision bodies within a strategic master plan. Arrangements for this master plan are discussed, including a proposed programme of actions to enhance the regulatory supervision in order to support accelerated mitigation of threats related to the nuclear legacy in the area.

In the 1960s, two technical bases of the Northern Fleet were created in Northwest Russia, at Andreeva Bay in the Kola Peninsula and Gremikha village on the coast of the Barents Sea. They maintained nuclear submarines, performing receipt and storage of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and are now designated sites of temporary storage (STSs). An analysis of the radiation situation at these sites demonstrates that substantial long-term remediation work will be required after the removal of the waste and spent nuclear fuel. Regulatory guidance is under development to support this work. Having in mind modern approaches to guaranteeing radiation safety, the primary regulatory focus is on a justification of dose constraints for determining acceptable residual contamination which might lead to exposure to workers and the public. For these sites, four principal options for remediation have been considered-renovation, conversion, conservation and liquidation. This paper describes a system of recommended dose constraints and derived control levels formulated for each option. The unconditional guarantee of long-term radioecological protection provides the basis for criteria development. Non-exceedance of these dose constraints and control levels implies compliance with radiological protection objectives related to the residual contamination. Dose reduction below proposed dose constraint values must also be carried out according to the optimisation principle. The developed criteria relate to the condition of the facilities and the STS areas after the termination of remediation activities. The proposed criteria for renovation, conversion, conservation and liquidation are entirely within the dose limits adopted in Russia for the management of man-made radiation sources, and are consistent with ICRP recommendations and national practice in other countries. The proposed criteria for STS remediation and new industrial (non-radiation-hazardous) facilities and buildings on the remedied sites had, until now, no analogues in the Russian system of regulation of radiation-hygienic standardisation. The proposals made here may serve as a basis for corresponding standards at other sites.

Today, Russia is implementing a national program for the remediation of legacy sites, resulting from the activities of the nuclear industry, the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, and due to radiation accidents and emergencies. Main priority is given to the health care provision issues of the workers and the population living in the vicinity of the targeted facilities. These tasks are under the regulatory responsibility of the FMBA of Russia. Since the beginning of the development of the nuclear industry in the country, the Institute of Biophysics, technical supporting organization of the FMBA of Russia (now the State Research Center – Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center Federal Medical Biological Agency (SRC-FMBC)), has been a leading institute in the scientific and methodological support of public radiation safety in the vicinity of radiation hazardous facilities serviced by the FMBA of Russia. In this regard, radiation-hygienic monitoring has always served as the main regulatory tool for more than 60 years. The paper describes the results of long-term monitoring (2005-2018) at the former coastal technical bases of the Russian Navy ( now – sites for temporary storage of SNF and RW in the Russian Northwest and Far East (nuclear legacy sites); sites of the uranium mining and milling facilities: Priargun Mountain Chemical Association and former Production Association “Almaz” (Lermontov, Stavropol Krai); and at uranium legacy sites of the Central Asia (Republic of Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic). The peculiarities of radiation situation at the sites are discussed, current challenges identified, and further regulatory improvements presented based on the gained experience.

To restrict radiation exposure to the population of Russia due to radionuclide ingestion via foods produced from agricultural raw material cultivated in Russia or imported from other states, Permissible Levels (PL) of 90 Sr and 137 Cs specific activities have been developed. The regulations comply with requirements of national Radiation Safety Standards (NRB-99), international recommendations for limitation of the public exposure under conditions of long-term radiation exposure and take into account the special features of food contamination generation in Russia. PL have been developed under condition of non-exceeding of 1 mSv annual internal dose to the public due to food intake. The levels developed for more than 140 kinds of foods have been included into the regulative document "Hygienic requirements of safety and food significance of foodstuffs" (SanPiN 2.3.2.1078-01) and are obligatory in Russia for national and imported foods.

Studies to enhance radiation and health monitoring at legacy sites are relevant and fall in the responsibilities of FMBA of Russia, which provides medical and health-care support to employees of enterprises under the State Corporation Rosatom, as well as the population living near these enterprises. The paper reviews data of long-term radiation and health monitoring (2005-2016) at nuclear and uranium legacy sites in Russia and the Central Asia countries, the methodical guidance of which was performed by State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center. The experience gained during the research allowed us identify the actual areas for the further work: the need for a comprehensive study to assess all significant risk factors to be evaluated; unification of collection and collation of radio-ecological data; improvement of the radiation protection system, taking into account international recommendations and methodological approaches to assessing the health conditions of the population.

This paper describes the findings of the radiation situation analysis on-site near Sysoeva and Razbojnik Bays. The results of radiation monitoring performed by radiological laboratory of DalRAO and studies performed by the experts from the Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Centre have been used in the course of analysis. On the industrial sites, gamma dose rate reaches 60 µSv h(-1), and the specific activities of man-made radionuclides in soil reach 2.5 × 10(4) Bq kg(-1) for (137)Cs, 7.6 × 10(3) Bq kg(-1) for (90)Sr and 2.0 × 10(3) Bq kg(-1) for (60)Co. Beyond the industrial sites, there are three local parts of the area on the coast and in the off-shore water area, contaminated with man-made radionuclides. Gamma dose rate reaches 8 µSv h(-1). The radionuclide contents in soil at this area reach 3.6 × 10(3), 2.8 × 10(3) and 19 Bq kg(-1) for (137)Сs, (90)Sr and (60)Со, respectively. At the remaining part of the area nearby Sysoeva Bay, the radiation situation complies with natural background.