Background

As part of the annual programmes 2002/ 2003 TACIS / Nuclear safety directly supported several activities related to the environmental rehabilitation of radiation-dangerous facilities; in the AP’s 2004, 2005 and 2006 additional projects and activities were planned in Russia, in Ukraine and in Kazakhstan.

TACIS support was primarily directed at transferring of western safety related know-how and supporting the promotion of an effective nuclear safety culture; the main objective of this project was to enhance such know-how transfer via monitoring and assistance activity related to the selected projects. This support project intended to deliver the information necessary for co-operation with Community agencies and bodies able to assist the Commission in its activities, and with other bilateral and multilateral donors.
Objectives

The objective of this project was to ensure an independent monitoring and assessment of TACIS activities and to provide “transfer of know-how” in order to enable focused planning and implementation of activities in medium time with the identification of the tools, methods and partners/ stakeholders in the TACIS projects.
The specific objectives of this project were:

• To critically assess the progress, the obtained results and added value of the work in the scope of the selected TACIS projects
• To advise and support the Russian institutes, organisations and agencies on the best practice for managing resources and effective implementation of the work taking into consideration international standards and experience.
• To feed back to AidCo all relevant information on the projects implementation, both EC funded and others, so as to enable first a sound financial management of the projects and second a targeted planning and programming of activities for future EC funded Action Programmes.

Project Results

The projects to be monitored and supported were the following:

• Preliminary radiological and engineering assessment of the open pad at Gremikha bay - Final Phase
• Support for the definition of LEPSE de-fuelling and decommissioning activities, second and final phase
• RADON Murmansk remediation
• Information and Awareness centre in Murmansk
• Procurement of equipment for Kurchatov and ITEPh remediation

The work was performed at the Contractor’s offices and in the Beneficiary country.
The experts that provided the requested assistance were experienced in nuclear safety and nuclear waste management, decommissioning and site remediation and had detailed understanding and proved experience on the EC’s assistance programme (TACIS) and the joint international effort to cope with the “radiological” problems in Russia and in other FSU countries. In addition expertise was provided on resources management, procurement related procedures and cost-benefit assessment.
The contractor prepared 3-monthly progress reports (administrative reports, having as aim to inform AidCo of the progress of the activities, problems encountered, recommendations, requests, etc).

The deliveries of the project were the following:

-report containing the detailed work-plan including the time schedule for the whole project

-report containing the independent assessment of past and running activities in the field of interest
The report documented the findings of the assessment on per project basis. The report of this task presented the relationship of various institutions and organisations with the specific activities/ fields of interest defined by the monitored TACIS projects.

To fulfil this task the Contractor had to:

• Review assistance programmes and individual projects that were implemented in Russia, in particular those in North-West and Far East of Russia, linked to objectives of the projects to be monitored under this contract. The results and achievements of the work already done and the overall needs to solve the problems with nuclear waste on these sites were assessed against the objectives and scope of the monitored TACIS projects;
• Analyse the political, economical and technical framework and circumstances that had to be considered when solving the problems addressed in the monitored TACIS projects. The conditions for TACIS project implementation were evaluated, using the criteria: effective use of the international donors’ funding, successfulness of means and methods of the project implementation and the sustainability of project’s achievements.

-report for the progress assessment and proposals for the continuation of the work under each monitored TACIS project – these reports were issued always 3 weeks after each corresponding report of the TACIS contractor was available;

-Assessment summary - every 6 months starting from the signature of the contract the Contractor had to condense the results obtained in a summary for each of the monitored projects.
The Contractor judged the results and deliverables that were provided in the scope of the monitored TACIS projects. In addition he formulated, in close cooperation with the contractor, proposals for a more effective use of the resources and for the qualitative and quantitative improvement of work carried out in the scope of the TACIS projects taking into consideration international experience and standards. The assessment was done against the ToR and working plan of the monitored projects; the usefulness and applicability of the results were investigated and assessed against objective criteria. The Contractor relied on the deliverables and information provided by each project contractor, and if needed he acted in a pro-active way in order to timely receive the relevant documentation in due format and quality to allow a sound and complete assessment. The work included also the following:

• identification of the actions and needs that were not covered by the existing ToR of the monitored projects but that could have an impact on the implementation of the future works and supply contracts in the area of interest;
• identification of the subjective and objective difficulties in the implementation of planned project steps to support the project teams;
• compilation of the common information regarding the nuclear waste management in Russia and other FSU countries (when applicable); the Contractor provided its conclusion with regard to needs for the future EC and/or other international donors’ assistance with particular emphasis on the N/W and Far East regions of Russia.

-the final report summarized the work performed and contained also the main findings of the reviews and analyses in a concise form.

The contract starting date was 15.01.2007, with COWI BELGIUM SPRL as contractor. The initial overall duration of the project was 18 months, but the contract was extended until 30 of November 2008.