In accordance with the legislative framework of the system for regulating liquid and airborne discharges of radioactive substances into the environment in force in the Russian Federation, this system is equally designed to regulate discharges of the radionuclides of both artificial and natural origin. The mechanisms of radiological impact of the discharges of natural origin radionuclides on the environment and population do not have any specificity in comparison with the ones of artificial origin radionuclides. Nevertheless, to date, the law enforcement of the Russian system for regulating discharges of the radioactive substances is applied only in relation to the discharges of the radionuclides of artificial origin carried out by nuclear facilities. At the same time, regulation of the discharges of natural origin radionuclides, in accordance with the safety standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is the best practice in the field of environmental protection, and the levels of radiation exposure, which characterize such discharges, are not low enough to be neglected. Regulation of the discharges of natural origin radionuclides is provided for in the norms of the European Union and is practically applied in the number of countries of the European Union, where the legislation provides for the regulation of activities, in which the raw materials containing radionuclides of natural origin are used, and the types of economic and other activities subject to this regulation are determined. The Russian system of regulation of discharges of the radioactive substances into the environment is built on the same basic principles and criteria that underlie foreign regulation systems, and which are recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The regulatory and methodological base formed to date in the Russian Federation contains all the required legal mechanisms for the regulation of discharges of the radioactive substances from nuclear facilities, is based on the best international practices and fully complies with the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
