WORKSHOP FOR DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL MC&A PLANS

Upgrades to both physical protection and material controls and accountability (MC&A) are progressing at many nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. In general, Russian facilities are well prepared to address issues related to physical protection. The infrastructure to plan and implement physical protection upgrades is already in place in Russia. The infrastructure to integrate new and existing MC&A capabilities is not as well developed. Our experience has shown that working with Russian facility management and technical personnel to draft an MC&A plan provides a way of moving MC&A upgrades forward. Los Alamos has developed a workshop for Russian nuclear facilities to facilitate the preparation of their facility MC&A plans. The workshops have been successful in bringing together facility management, safeguards specialists, and operations personnel to initiate the process of drafting these MC&A plans. The MC&A plans provide the technical basis for scheduling future MC&A upgrades at the facilities. Although facility MC&A plans are site specific, the workshop can be tailored to guide the development of an MC&A plan for any Russian nuclear site.