Nuclear Materials Ownership in the Russian Federation

Abstract

In response to the challenges of the epoch, “nuclear” laws currently regulate safety issues related to handling of nuclear materials, nuclear facilities operation, related transactions, nuclear waste processing and disposal, state control over the nuclear energy use, and international cooperation in the nuclear sphere. One of the most important institutions of the “nuclear” regulation system in Russian law is the institution of ownership of nuclear materials, understood by the modern legislator as materials containing, or capable of reproducing, fissile (fissionable) nuclear substances. Consolidating the rules of nuclear materials ownership, the legislator further formulates requirements for nuclear materials control and accounting, transactions procedure, and safe operation of nuclear facilities, as well as introduces liability for violation of such requirements. Today, many aspects related to the legal status of nuclear materials owners and the notion of handling nuclear materials deserve a deep legal analysis, since the current legal regulation has gaps and contradictions. The legal writing method used to word such norms, structures, and basic notions must meet the criteria of clarity, unambiguous interpretation, and absence of regulatory gaps, that is why the system of legal regulation of the institution of nuclear materials ownership needs further improvement.