The purposes of this project are as follows:

• Development of a strategy for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the regulatory authority and establishment of an associated action plan for implementing this strategy.
• Further development and enhancement of the regulatory framework in Thailand, in order to ensure the safety of research reactors and nuclear pwoer plants and to harmonize it with best international practice.
• Enhancing the capabilities of the regulatory authority in fulfilling its functions of assessing and verifying the satety of nuclear installations.
• Perform a review and update the Human Resource Development Action Plan for OAP.
• Development - in cooperation with OAP and its TSO - of a national strategy and regulatory framework for radioactive waste management, in accordance with the best international standards and practice.
• Enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the regulatory body in regulating Naturally Occuring Radioactive Material (NORM).
• Supporting the OAP in the establishment of a primary standards laboratory for radiation metrology.
• Supporting the OAP in enhancing its capacity and effectiveness in estimating doses to non-human biota and to members of the public from radiation or radioactive material naturally present or released to the environment.

 
SUMMARY:
The European Commission’s Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC) launched its first project dedicated exclusively to Thailand. In this project, Thailand’s nuclear regulatory authority received support to improve its capacity and effectiveness. Further, the national radioactive waste management strategy was proposed including its regulatory framework. With this, the regulatory control of radioactive waste arising from the use of radiation and radioactive materials in research, medicine and industry will be established.
Although not a nuclear power country, Thailand was one of South East Asia’s early adopters of nuclear technologies, becoming a Member State of the IAEA in 1957, and establishing the basic framework for nuclear research in the late fifties, including a 1 MW research reactor commissioned in sixties. Thailand's vibrant economy includes multiple uses of radiation technologies, from industrial, over broad medical uses to research (also clustered around the research reactor). Also since the sixties, plans exist for introducing nuclear power production in Thailand.
The Beneficiary of the project is the Government of Thailand, represented by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority - Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP), and its technical support organization - Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT).
The 3-years project has started in December 2014 and was implemented by a consortium of organizations led by Enconet Consulting Ges.m.b.H., an EU regulatory consultancy based in Austria with dedicated experience in the enhancement of the regulatory infrastructure and human resources, development of radioactive waste and NORM strategies, which also possesses a unique experience in the nuclear sector in Southeast Asian countries. Project partners are the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA), Bel V, a TSO and subsidiary of the FANC (Federal Agency for Nuclear Control of Belgium), and IRE-EliT (Institute for Radioelements - Environment and Lifescience Technology) a public utility from Belgium.
The aim of the project was to support the OAP by providing the EU knowhow for introducing the regulatory Strategy, establishing the human resources development plan to support the Strategy, as well as to develop currently missing or improve existing regulations. This is important as OAP will be soon licensing a 30 kW research reactor exclusively for medical applications, but also the replacement of the existing research reactor with a new one in the future. In such a case, the existing research reactor will be decommissioned, requiring both the regulatory oversight but also the radioactive waste management strategy to accommodate for generated waste. The project will assist Thailand in establishing the Primary Standard Dosimetry laboratory (the first one in South East Asia) and support the environmental monitoring, as well as regulation and processing of NORM materials. All this will significantly enhance the protection of the population and the environment from harmful effect of radiation.
The project made an important contribution to enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the regulatory body, and will also support the process of Thailand’s accession to key international conventions. With this, the regulatory approach in Thailand will be aligned with the best international practice. In this way, the INSC cooperation is both complementing and enhancing the support Thailand receives from the IAEA as well as from some other nations, including the USA and Korea.
The overall objectives of this project were to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the Regulatory Authority of Thailand (Office of Atoms for Peace, OAP) and its TSO (Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology, TINT) and to cooperate in developing a national radioactive waste management strategy and the framework for the regulatory control of radioactive waste arising from the use of radiation and radioactive materials in research, medicine and industry, and spent fuel resulting from the operation of the research reactor.
According to these objectives, the following specific purposes were targeted within the
project development:

• Development of a strategy for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the regulatory authority and establishment of an associated action plan for implementing this strategy;
• Further development and enhancement of the regulatory framework in Thailand, in order to ensure the safety of research reactors and nuclear power plants and to harmonize it with best international practices;
• Enhancing the capabilities of the regulatory authority in fulfilling its function of assessing and verifying the safety of nuclear installations;
• Perform a review and update the Human Resource Development Action Plan for OAP;
• Development, in cooperation with OAP and its TSO, of a national strategy and regulatory framework for radioactive waste management, in accordance with the best international standards and practice;
• Enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the regulatory body in regulating Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM);
• Supporting the OAP in the establishment of a primary standards laboratory for radiation metrology;
• Supporting the OAP in enhancing its capacity and effectiveness in estimating doses to non-human biota and to members of the public from radiation or radioactive material naturally present or released to the environment.

To achieve these specific goals, the project was organized around the development of eight technical tasks, accordingly:

• Task 1: Strategy, and its practical implementation, for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the national regulatory body, the OAP;
• Task 2: Regulatory framework;
• Task 3: Assessing and verifying the safety of nuclear installations;
• Task 4: Human Resources Development Plan;
• Task 5: National strategy and regulatory framework for radioactive waste management;
• Task 6: Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM);
• Task 7: Radiation metrology;
• Task 8: Dose assessment of radiation in, or released into, the environment

 
The objectives of the Task 1 were to develop:

• A Strategy (or refine the already existing strategy) for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the OAP and the TINT;
• An Action Plan (or refine the already existing Action Plan) for implementing the strategy in a timely and effective manner;
• A Cooperation Plan identifying how and where cooperation could contribute to the more effective and timely achievement of the strategy goals and Action Plan.

The documents were developed with input from OAP. The Strategy follows the IAEA GSR Part 1 requirements for the legal and regulatory framework and how it is going to be implemented is reflected in the Action and Cooperation Plan, which will also serve as a framework for ongoing and future cooperation under the auspices of the INSC programme and/or with other potential partners. The Contractor developed the Cooperation Plan as an integral part of the Action Plan, since the Cooperation Plan also contains actions for the implementation of the Strategy.
 
The objective of the Task 2 was to further develop and enhance the regulatory framework in Thailand for ensuring the safety of research reactors and nuclear power plants and bring it broadly in accord with best international practice. The task included the following activities:

• Familiarise the OAP with regulatory approaches adopted in the EU and how they may relate to the specific situation in Thailand;
• Review the current Thai regulatory framework and on-going activities related to its further development (e.g. revision of the nuclear law, revision of existing regulations);
• Recommend to OAP options for the further development and enhancement of the regulatory framework and its documentation;
• Recommend to OAP development and issuance of regulations related to safety of research reactors, nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, and to the safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel;
• Support the OAP in accelerating Thailand’s accession to a number of international treaties and conventions, in particular those concerned with nuclear safety, the safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel and civil liabilities for nuclear damage (e.g. enhancing knowledge and experience of nuclear law through focused training).

 
The objective of the Task 3 was to enhance the capabilities of the regulatory authority in fulfilling its functions of assessing and verifying the safety of nuclear installations. As such, the Consultant has supported the OAP in developing internal procedures and guides for safety assessments and inspection mainly related for the short and mid-term activities, i.e., the current research reactor, new research reactor for BNCT purpose and new research reactor of 10 MW.
 
The Task 4 was aimed to review and update the existing Human Resource Development Action Plan (HRDAP) for the OAP and TINT. Activities of the task included review and update the existing HRDAP taking into account the following recent changes and boundary conditions:

• The modified schedule (roadmap) for the use of nuclear energy in Thailand (i.e. the planned commissioning of the first power plant was postponed beyond 2026);
• The actual roadmap for the construction and operation of a new research reactor;
• The remaining lifetime of the existing research reactor prior to its closure and the following decommissioning.

The HRDAP has been reviewed twice: a first time before the workshop (review of the existing version), a second time after the workshop (review of the updated draft version). The updated version of the HDRAP has been endorsed by the end-user. The basic aim of the Task 5 was to cooperate with the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) and the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) in the development of a national strategy and regulatory framework for radioactive waste (RW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management that are in accord with international standards and best practices.
 
The Task 5 was construed and carried out in two independent but linked and complementary subtasks as follows:

• Development of the national strategy for radioactive waste management; and

• Development of the regulatory framework and requirements for radioactive waste management.

The Task 6 aimed to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the national regulatory body of Thailand, the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP), in regulating Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM), and of the Radioactive Waste Management Centre of theThailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) in managing the NORM waste.
The task has been implemented in a series of two subtasks, the first one being dedicated to the review of the study prepared by OAP for the NORM existing in Thailand, and the second one to the development of the necessary regulations and guidelines for the control of NORM activities in Thailand, including the remediation of NORM contaminated sites.
The main objective of the Task 7 was to support the OAP in the establishment of a primary standards laboratory (PSDL) for radiation metrology. The laboratory will enable primary standards to be established for a broad range of radiation types, levels and dosimetry systems. While mainly intended for use in Thailand, the facilities may find wider use as a primary standards laboratory for the South East-Asian region. Within the Task 7 the Contractor has:

• Reviewed the design documents of the new radiation metrology facilities to be constructed at the OAP. Particular attention has been paid to reveal any limitations and to identify how the arrangements may be further optimized in terms of cost and/or efficacy;
• Provided advice on equipment to be purchased and installed in the laboratory, taking best international practice into account, including radiation protection as well as security measures.

The objective of the Task 8 was to support OAP and the TINT to enhance their capacity and effectiveness in estimating radiation doses to non-human biota and to the members of the public due to existent environmental radiation or due to radioactive materials released to the environment. To do so, the task 8 was implemented through a series of workshops and training courses on:

• Environmental monitoring practices in Europe and comparison with Thai practices;
• Methodology for dose assessment calculations and for dose estimation to humans and the environment;
• PC CREAM software for dose assessment;
• RODOS decision support system.

The project outputs have been the result of close collaboration among project experts and OAP / TINT experts, thus leading to increased ownership from the part of the national stakeholders. All project outputs are well referenced to IAEA requirements and are linked to best practices in the nuclear sector.