Regulation of nuclear security in Ukraine: contributions from international technical assistance projects

As highlighted in the Ukrainian Regulatory Threat Assessment Report for 2017, a strong physical protection regime ensuring the state regulation of physical protection in Ukraine has been established. However, significant gaps in nuclear security regulations still exist and pose a substantial threat. Therefore, the international technical assistance project intended to identify areas to improve the regulatory framework for nuclear security was implemented and resulted in a list of primary nuclear security regulations to be developed. The successful implementation of the project for the development of the first priority item on this list-General Nuclear Security Provisions-enables the implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear security fundamentals into Ukrainian practices and opens the way for the development of subsequent nuclear security regulations. However, the Russian invasion, especially the seizure of the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants, revealed new threats and requirements for nuclear security, which are also addressed in this article.