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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


Federal Agency on Atomic Energy

The Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom - FAEA) (the Ministry of Atomic Energy prior to March 2004) and Rosenergoatom, a state-owned nuclear power concern, operate Russia's nuclear power reactors. On 09 March 2004 Russian President Vladimir Putin broke up the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry and assigned its activites to other ministries. Under the new structure, civilian nuclear activities were handled by the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, under the newly created Industry and Energy Ministry. Former Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev headed the new, lower-level agency. Initially it was reported that military aspects of the former Atomic Energy Ministry were transferred to the Defense Ministry. However, subsequently it was understood that the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy was subordinated to the Ministry of Defense on matters related to nuclear weapons, and was responsible for the production of all nuclear materials and the development, testing, and production of all nuclear weapons, as well as the elimination of nuclear warheads and nuclear munitions.

Thee presidential edict of March 9, 2004 placed the agency officially under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense as far as issues related to the nuclear weapons complex are concerned. The Ministry of Defense was always involved in these issues, but former Minister of Atomic Energy Viktor Mikhailov has opined that the new legal language may result in increased Ministry of Defense influence over the state defense order-the Ministry's requisition for nuclear weapons-in the nuclear weapons complex, with the funding for the state defense order coming via the Defense Ministry's new Federal Defense Order Service, rather than being transmitted directly to the FAAE, as was the case for Minatom.

The Federal Agency on Atomic Energy was formed on 9 March 2004, by the President's Decree of Russia # 314 "about system and structure of the federal organs of executive power" on the base of the abolished RF Ministry of Atomic Energy. President's Decree RF of 20 May 2004, "questions of the structure of the federal organs of executive power" extended a number of the authorities of agency.

The Federal Agency on Atomic Energy is the authorized federal organ of executive power, which achieves functions on conducting of state policy, to normative- lawful regulation, to the rendering of state services and to control of the state asset in the sphere of the use of atomic energy, development and safe functioning of atomic power engineering, nuclear weapons complex, nuclear- fuel cycle, atomic science and technology, nuclear and radiation safety, nondissemination of nuclear materials and technologies, and also international collaboration in this sphere.

The Federal Agency on Atomic Energy is the organ of the state administration of the use of atomic energy, state competent authority for nuclear and radiation safety with the transportation of nuclear materials, of radioactive materials and articles of them, central public body and message center in accordance with the international convention about the physical protection of nuclear material and national competent authority for the fulfillment of commitments of the Russian Federation in the region of guaranteeing the physical protection of nuclear material in the International Atomic Energy Agency and other international organizations.

Management of the activity of The Federal Agency on Atomic Energy is under the government of the Russian Federation.

According to the decision of the government RF of 28 June 2004. #316 "about the assertion of the position of federal agency on atomic energy" to the agency, in particular, is entrusted the fulfillment of the following functions on control of the state asset and rendering of the state services:

  • it carries out in the routine competitions and concludes state contracts to the arrangement of orders for the delivery of goods, fulfillment of works, rendering of services, on conducting of scientific research, experimental design and technological works for the state needs in the established sphere of activity, including for guaranteeing the needs of agency;
  • are achieved the authorities of owner with respect to the federal property, necessary for guaranteeing the performance of the functions of the federal organ of power of the state in the established sphere of activity, including of property, transmitted to federal offices of state and federal state unitary enterprises, subordinate for agency;
  • it achieves an economic activity analysis of subordinate state unitary enterprises and asserts the economic indices of their activity, it carries out in the subordinate organizations of checking financial-economic activity and use of a property complex;
  • are fulfilled the functions of state customer - the coordinator of works on the complex utilization of nuclear-powered submarines and of surface ships with the nuclear power plants, and also on reduction in the radiation danger in the places for their dislocation, ecological rehabilitation of the objects, connected with the temporary storage of the worked out nuclear fuel, solid and liquid radioactive wastes;
  • are achieved the functions of state customer - the coordinator of special ecological programs; makes the decision about the acknowledgement of the organization of suitable to exploit nuclear installation, radiation source or point of storage and to achieve by its own forces or with the attraction of other organizations activity in the arrangement, the design, the construction, the operation and the removal from service of nuclear installation, radiation source or point of storage, and also activity in the rotation with the nuclear materials and the radioactive materials;
  • it accomplishes control of the government reserve of special raw material and delyashchikhsya materials, and also by the located in the federal property nuclear materials, with exception of the nuclear materials, transferred in the composition of articles to the RF Ministry of Defense, concludes in the routine agreements to the transfer of located in the federal property nuclear materials to the use to legal persons;
  • the state register of nuclear materials conducts;
  • ensures fastening in the routine for the Russian Federation of rights to the objects of intellectual property and other results of the scientific and technical activity, created due to the means of federal budget in the implementation of the state contracts, concluded by agency, and also is achieved order by the allotted for the Russian Federation rights to the results of scientific and technical activity for purposes of their bringing to the stage of industrial application and realization of finished production;
  • the examination of secret and top secret inventions in the established sphere of activity in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation is carried out in the routine;
  • information, analytical, documentation, lawful and logistic support of activity of special commission for questions of import on the territory of the Russian Federation of the irradiated fuel assemblies of foreign production is accomplished;
  • it issues to the country- suppliers of assertion with respect to the peaceful use of the imported nuclear goods and technologies, guarantee of their physical protection and conditions of the subsequent transfer;
  • are achieved the functions of state customer according to the state defense order, the intergovermental and federal special-purpose programs and the federal address investment program in the established sphere of activity.

    In April 2007 the US National Nuclear Security Administration and Rosatom (Russia) agreed to sustain security upgrades at nuclear material facilities. Security enhancements that the United States installed over the last 14 years at Russian nuclear sites will be preserved by Russia under the new plan. The plan by NNSA and Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) outlines specific details for how the upgrades will be sustained so that they can be transitioned to sole Russian support for the future, as mandated by US law. It covers sustainability at nuclear material sites. Since 1993, NNSA's programs had spent approximately $1.6 billion in Russia to enhance security for several hundreds of nuclear warheads and hundreds of metric tons of nuclear material at approximately 75 percent of Russia's nuclear material storage and warhead sites of concern. This includes all 50 of Russia's Navy nuclear sites, 11 of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces sites and over 175 buildings within the Russian nuclear complex. Work is underway at the balance of sites and will be completed by 2008.

    In a message to the Federal Assembly on 26 April 2007, President Vladimir Putin suggested establishing a special corporation uniting the country's nuclear power companies, which will work on both domestic and foreign markets and will ensure the government's interests in the sphere of defense. "For this purpose, we will have to adopt a special law. I would like to stress that I am speaking about nuclear energy," Putin said. Putin suggested setting up a special state corporation for uniting the civil and military sectors of the nuclear industry. The corporation will manage the competitive sector (Atomenergoprom concern comprising nuclear power companies) and the state monopolies (science, nuclear safety, nuclear weapons sector). The corporation was to replace the Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy. It was supposed to foster Russia's interests in the field of defense.



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