This publication presents the results of a Coordinated Research Project and related research on the identification of high confidence nuclear forensic isotopic, chemical and physical data characteristics, or signatures, and provides information on signatures that can help identify the origin and history of nuclear and other radioactive material encountered out of regulatory control. This research report compiles findings from investigations of materials obtained from throughout the nuclear fuel cycle to include radioactive sources. The publication further provides recent results used to identify, analyse in the laboratory, predict and interpret these signatures relative to the requirements of a nuclear forensics examination. It describes some of the controls on the incorporation and persistence of these signatures in these materials as well as their potential use in a national system of identification to include a national nuclear forensics library.

The focus of this publication is on benchmarking low and intermediate level waste generated and managed during the normal operating life of a WWER, and it identifies and defines the benchmarking parameters selected for WWER type reactors. It includes a brief discussion on why those parameters were selected and their intended benchmarking benefits, and provides a description of the database and graphical user interface selected, designed and developed, including how to use it for data input and data analysis. The CD-ROM accompanying this publication provides an overview of practices at WWER sites, which were to a large extent prepared using the WWER BMS.

The objectives of this publication are to identify and critically review the criteria to be considered while selecting waste management technologies; summarize, evaluate, rank and compare the different technical solutions; and offer a systematic approach for selecting the best matching solution. This publication covers the management of radioactive waste from all nuclear operations, including waste generated from research reactors, power reactors, and nuclear fuel cycle activities including high level waste (HLW) arising from reprocessing and spent nuclear fuel declared as waste (SFW), as well as low level waste (LLW) and intermediate level waste (ILW) arising from the production and use of radionuclides in industry, agriculture, medicine, education and research.

The experience from the last 40 years has shown that severe accidents can subject electrical and instrumentation and control (I&C) equipment to environmental conditions exceeding the equipment’s original design basis assumptions. Severe accident conditions can then cause rapid degradation or damage to various degrees up to complete failure of such equipment. This publication provides the technical basis to consider when assessing the capability of electrical and I&C equipment to perform reliably during a severe accident. It provides examples of calculation tools to determine the environmental parameters as well as examples and methods that Member States can apply to assess equipment reliability.

The IAEA has systematic programmes to provide Member States with the guidance, services and training necessary for establishing a legal and regulatory framework for the safe use of nuclear technologies, including the planning and implementation of decommissioning. The model regulations provided in this publication cover all aspects of the planning, conduct and termination of the decommissioning of facilities and management of the associated waste, in accordance with the relevant requirements of the IAEA safety standards. They provide a framework for establishing regulatory requirements and conditions of authorization to be incorporated into individual authorizations for the decommissioning of specific facilities. The model regulations also establish criteria to be used for assessing compliance with regulatory requirements. The publication will be of assistance to Member States in appraising the adequacy of their existing regulations and regulatory guides, and serves as a reference for those Member States developing regulations for the first time.

This publication arises from the results of two projects to assist Member States in understanding and developing safety cases for near-surface radioactive waste disposal facilities. The objective of the publication is to give detailed information on the contents of safety cases for radioactive waste disposal and the types of arguments that may be included. It is written for technical experts preparing a safety case, and decision makers in the regulatory body and government. The publication outlines the key uses and aspects of the safety case, its evolution in parallel with that of the disposal facility, the key decision steps in the development of the waste disposal facility, the components of the safety case, their place in the Matrix of Arguments for a Safety Case (the MASC matrix), and a detailed description of the development of sample arguments that might be included in a safety case for each of two hypothetical radioactive waste disposal facilities.

This publication presents the outcome of an IAEA coordinated research project and provides research findings and isotopic methodologies to quantify the soil evaporation component of water losses and determine the transpiration efficiency for several important crop species under a variety of environments. The TECDOC also presents a simple, fast and portable vacuum distillation apparatus for extraction water from soil and plant samples for isotopic analyses for the separation of soil evaporation, which helped to reduce the bottleneck in sample throughput for many soil water and hydrology studies.

One of the most important lessons from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is that a reliable containment venting system can be crucial for effective accident management during severe accidents, especially for smaller volume containments in relation to the rated nuclear power. Containment venting can enhance the capability to maintain core cooling and containment integrity as well as reduce uncontrolled radioactive releases to the environment if the venting system has a filtration capacity. In general, a filtered containment vent system increases the flexibility of plant personnel in coping with unforeseen events. This publication provides the overview of the current status of related activities with the goal to share information between Member States on actions, upgrades, and new technologies pertaining to containment cooling and venting.

This publication summarizes the status of radon programmes at the start of 2014 in the Member States in Europe participating in the IAEA technical cooperation project on establishing enhanced approaches to the control of public exposure to radon. The current status was determined from responses to a questionnaire covering the following elements of a national radon action plan: policies and strategies; radon measurement surveys; establishment of reference levels; managing radon in existing buildings and in future buildings; education and training of professionals; and public awareness initiatives.

Nuclear and related techniques can help develop climate smart agricultural practices by optimizing water use efficiency. The measurement of soil water content is essential to improve the use of this resource in agriculture. However, most sensors monitor small areas (less than 1m in radius), hence a large number of sensors are needed to obtain soil water content across a large area. This can be both costly and labour intensive and so larger scale measuring devices are needed as an alternative to traditional point-based soil moisture sensing techniques. The cosmic ray neutron sensor (CRNS) is such a device that monitors soil water content in a non-invasive and continuous way. This publication provides background information about this novel technique, and explains in detail the calibration and validation process.

This publication presents the results of an international research project on optimizing the capture and storage of water by assessing nutrient using water conservation zones in agricultural landscapes. Eight countries from Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe participated in the project. Field studies were established in all participating countries using isotopic and nuclear techniques to assess three types of water conservation zones that are used to harvest water for irrigation, crop production and improve downstream water quality. In addition, isotopic and nuclear techniques were used to collect data to identify the ideal locations in the landscapes for developing wetlands. The publication provides information to researchers working in the area of soil and water management, natural resource managers, policy makers and farmers. For those working to develop wetlands, information is provided to support planning, monitoring and evaluation.

This publication provides the results from Working Group 1, on Reference Methodologies for Controlling Discharges of Routine Releases, of the IAEA’s EMRAS II (Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety) programme, which ran from 2009 to 2011. This Working Group carried out an intercomparison of methods used for assessing radiological impacts to people and the environment due to authorized releases of radionuclides during normal operation of nuclear facilities. Three important types of exposure scenarios were considered, those related to atmospheric, marine and river releases. The publication describes the details of the hypothetical radioactive release scenarios, the environmental pathways considered, the environmental transfer models applied, the calculation methods and the results obtained. An analysis of the results and the main findings and conclusions relevant for the use of the described input data and methodologies in regulatory applications is included. The publication also presents considerations on selection of the ‘representative person’ and a summary of the different approaches in some States for the regulatory control of radioactive discharges. Input data is included in the annex.