1. Regional Workshop on Waste Management and Safe Disposal of Radioactive Waste, Tunis, Tunisia 17 th – 21 st March 2014 Nigerian Presentation Farouq Abdulrasheed Ingawa Waste Safety Radiological Safety Department Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority Abuja, Nigeria 1

2. Regulatory Framework The Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority was established by Act 19 of the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection, 1995 as well as a system of licensing the Nigerian Basic Ionizing Radiation Regulations (NiBIRR) establishes the framework for implementing Basic Safety Standards as is given in the IAEA – BSS 12 practice specific regulations ( some have been reviewed while others are under review to conform with the latest IAEA standards) NNRA is administered by a Governing Board comprising of all stakeholder ministries (Environment, Petroleum, Science and Technology etc. and a National Security Committee) 2

3. Some Regulations are as follows; Nigerian Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources Regulations, 2006 (consistent with the IAEA Code of Conduct for the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources) Nigerian Transportation of Radioactive Source Regulations, 2006 gives directive for Transport of radioactive wastes within the country consistent with the TS-R-1 of IAEA Nigerian Radioactive Waste Management Regulations, 2006 (under Review) Nigerian Radiation Safety for the Management of Naturally Occurring Materials (NORM) Regulations (2008 )-(under Review) Guidance document for radioactive waste management 3

4. NNRA has four (4) Departments (AF, NSPSS, RS, AE and a National Institute for Radiation Protection). Public exposure is under RS with units, medical Application, Industrial Application, Waste Management and Environent, and six (6) zonal offices that are responsible for inspectiomns and monitoring) Transport and Emergency is under Director Generals Office Radiation Safety Advisers (licensed consultants) Accredited laboratories in CERT, CERD and other University Departments 4

5. Status of radioactive waste management The nature of radioactive waste in a country depends on the type of practice in the country. The use of radioactive material in Nigeria can be divided broadly into three and these are research, medical and industrial applications. The sources applied can be divided into three broad groups, which are: Unsealed source used in medicine, research establishment and process control in industry Sealed Source used in industry, medicine and research establishments. Research reactor fuel and activated products. 5

6. Nigeria presently has one operational Waste Storage Facility at the Centre for Energy Research and Training at Zaria. CERT had earlier been granted Certificate of Registration of Premises with Certificate numbers NNRA/IR/AUT/PRM/243/2007 and NNRA/RWM/AUT/PRM/083/2008 Initially it was directly under the NNRA before being transferred to NAEC. Nigeria is presently constructing another Waste Storage Facility envisaging a permanent waste management facility in the near future. Here all the site and design requirements have been discussed by the operator and the regulator before construction began Two IAEA missions were conducted 6

7. BILATERAL MECHANISM  The NNRA in conjunction with the US DOE assessed and is carrying out security upgrade at the following facilities : NIRR-1 Research Reactor at CERT, Zaria Radioactive Waste Management Facility at CERT, Zaria Teletherapy unit at Eko Hospital, Lagos Teletherapy unit at University College Hospital, Ibadan Carried out National Search and Secure Training for orphan Radioactive Sources in Nov 2008 Initiated the expansion of the RWMF at CERT, Zaria Teletherapy facility at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria 7

8. The NNRA through international collaboration with the US DOE and the IAEA has established a complete inventory of the Legacy Sources at Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited in July 2008. The sources have been labelled and are presently stored in two ISO containers at the ASCL Complex. The final disposal of these sources is still a challenge 8

9. Major Nuclear Installation and Uses of Radioactive Sources in Nigeria include: Information available on radioactive sources as compiled by the Authority RAIS Team show that the following are the major nuclear installations in the country generating or likely to generate radioactive waste: One 30 kW Miniature Neuron Source Reactor (MNSR) at the Centre of Energy Research and Training,Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria One 8MeV Van De Graff accelerator under installation at the Centre for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 9

10. Eleven 14 MeV Neutron Generators in research institutions and the oil industry A mega-Curie Cobalt-60 radioactive source due for commissioning at the Sheda Science and Technology Complex, Abuja A number of sealed radiation sources, Cobalt-60 and Cesium- 137, are being used at the radiotherapy departments of the University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Eko Hospital, Lagos and Grace Hospital Ibadan Couple of thousands of radioactive sources used as nuclear gauges in the manufacturing industry 10

11. Several kilocurie Cobalt-60 radioactive sources used for biological research and due for decommissioning A considerable amount of radioisotopes including labeled compounds are used in various research laboratories, nuclear medicine centers, research institutes, universities, hospitals, etc for R&D and other routine activities A considerable amount of radioactive waste in the tin-mine tailings around Jos in Plateau State and in the petroleum industry in the form of TE-NORM 11

12. NNRA has a regulation on NORMs. This regulation has not been implemented, but the policy on waste management prescribes that the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) should take over the programme and NNRA will regulate the implementation. The National Strategy prescribes that the implementation should not exceed next year. The Nigerian Senate has also requested that the programme be implemented 12

13. NNRA with the assistance of IAEA has installed portal monitors at the export terminal of materials leaving the country as well as at various inland borders in the country. This is managed by the Custom authority NNRA has purchased (more) six portal monitors to be installed at the import terminals for such materials Recycling plants are by law expected to show evidence of monitoring of their inputs and NNRA organizes regular inspection of such facilities 13

14. National Waste Management Policy and Strategy NNRA prepared a national policy on waste management as far back as 2005. This was actually drawn using the IAEA standards available at that time. With the establishment of NAEC, this document was transferred to it as the national promoter organization. NAEC has already presented a copy, revised with help of IAEA, to the Presidency for approval. In the policy, a Waste Management Organization will be created under NAEC, but NNRA is to license and have regulatory oversight on the project 14

15. National Waste Management Framework Presidency (Government) ) NAEC (Budget) NNRA (Budgets, Funds and Authorization Fees) WMO (Budget,) Waste Management and Environment Unit (10 resident inspectors) National Institute for Radiation Protection (NNRA independent Measurements)) Interim Storage Facilities (Private and Institution based; (Charges)) Central Waste Management Facility (Design Stage, Budget and charges; Staff Training on-going) 15

16. RAW and Decommissioning Provisions The Waste Management Regulation prescribes “return to manufacturer” principle. Before import license is granted, prospective buyers are required to obtain a written commitment from manufacturer to accept a source after use No report of failure to accept has been reported where this agreement was entered into Acceptance of wastes for storage is on the ground that it has been packaged and meets transport condition Handling of wastes must be in designated facilities only The regulation has the classification in line with the IAEA standards All storage facilities are under surveillance and are regularly monitored 16

17. Predisposal Management of Radioactive Wastes The characterisation is prescribed in the regulations and the segregation processes are part of what the waste owner must do before presenting it to the central storage facility or it may be done at the temporal storage facilities. Meanwhile RAW are not being processed during interim storage, processing will be done by WMO 17

18. Clearance Regime Not well defined in the waste management regulation. The regulation is under review and will include clearance limits in accordance with international recommendations 18

19. Storage of RAW All storage facilities are to be licensed. No wastes are undergoing conditioning yet, so they are stored in packaged but retrievable way All storage facilities are supposed to have three licenses – Site license – satisfactory design, and construction and security arrangement – Operation license – satisfactory training of personnel in radiation protection and monitoring procedure, presentation of monitoring and radiation protection programme – Decommissioning programme is part of site licensing – The presently operating storage facility in CERT, Zaria has been reviewed, expanded and the security upgraded with assistance of IAEA and USDO – A new Radioactive Waste Facility is being built. IAEA expert have visited at least thrice 19

20. Disposal of RAW Disposal of RAW is included in the national waste management policy The strategy is to gradually explore the disposal options and the repository sites Regulatory requirements will also be drawn up and the WMO will submit both the safety case and safety analysis report SAR depending on the technology chosen 20

21. Decommissioning of Nuclear and RAM Containing Facilities Fund for decommissioning will be derived from charges derived during operation. However, government will be responsible for running the repository The WMO will draw up the plan for shut down of existing research reactor, but there is a standby tripartite agreement between the supplier, IAEA and Nigeria that the core of the reactor will be repatriated Nigeria has no plans to reprocess wastes 21

22. Remediation Remediation is included in the national policy, but the WMO will draw up a remediation for TE-NORM contaminated areas after the assessments and quantification has been carried out. 22

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