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       Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union contaminated a lot of research and production sites in their development of nuclear weapons. While the U.S. sites are inside the U.S., many of the Soviet sites were in member states of the Soviet Union such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and others. The Soviet nuclear weapons development left radioactive sources, radioactive materials and sites contaminated by radioactive substances in Georgia.
       Georgia currently uses radioactive sources for medical and industry applications. It also managed radioactive waste facilities. A research reactor called the IRT-M was operated between 1959 and 1989. The IRT-M was decommissioned in 2016 with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Since 2007, a centralized storage facility has been in operation. The facility manages radioactive waste from the decommissioning of IRT-M and other radioactive materials from activities in Georgia. An older facility at Saakadze contains a significant quantity of radioactive wastes and is considered to be a storage facility. The Georgian Ministry of Defense also keeps some low activity disused radioactive sources.
       A campaign was carried out in the early 2000s to identify and collect the radioactive waste in Georgia. Georgia began work in 2013 on complying with fundamental international requirements for handling nuclear materials and waste. One such requirement is the legal framework for nuclear safety and radiation protection.
        Georgia created an independent government agency and an organization that will be responsible for dealing with radioactive waste. The new Georgian regulatory agency developed a national strategy for managing all of the radioactive waste and the Georgia government formally adopted it in 2016.
        Now that Georgia has achieved compliance with fundamental international requirements, the EU has approved a million dollars in funding for the Georgian cleanup project. The money will be spent to site and develop a preliminary design for a new processing facility and an interim storage site for radioactive waste in Georgia.
       Now the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SRSM) has embarked on an international procurement process to design facilities to manage the legacy radioactive wastes in Georgia from the Soviet era. The SRSM will be coordinating the two-year European Union project. SRSM will also provide one sixth of the one million dollar funding. Christopher Walden from the SRSM’s Office for International Relations said that it is novel for a nuclear regulator to lead this type of project. He also said, “Apart from project management and facilitating, our experts are assisting as advisers and support for Georgia's radiation safety authority.”
       The location of all the radioactive waste in Georgia has been mapped. A proposal has been made to site an interim storage facility and a processing facility. Hearings have been held for the public and stakeholders to discuss and comment on the proposal. SRSM is now working on the procurement process for the design of the interim storage facility and processing facility.
        The final goal of the SRSM Georgian project will be a preliminary design for a future waste storage site. There will also be a decision in principle from the government that will demonstrate its commitment to proceed with the construction of this site.