SAFEGUARDS PERSONNEL : HOW TO QUALIFY THE RIGHT PEOPLE FOR THE RIGHT JOB

The nuclear material safeguards system at EDF nuctear power plants is composed of physical security measures, material control and accountability systems and safeguards personnel. Considerable attention has been given to upgrading physical security components and material control and accountability information systems and practices, but how much emphasis has been placed on acquiring the right people for the job, determining what they need to know and how they should be trained, and evaluating their performance ? Without dedicated and qualified personnel, both physical protection and material control and accountability are inefficient. Considering new regulatory requirements on quality assurance of nuclear material control and accountability and recent organizational changes at EDF power plants, the objectives of this paper are to highlight the nuclear material custodial requirements at EDF facilities, to describe the existing training programs, to identify the documentation needed in order to ensure a uniform knowtedge and to identify areas where additional program guidance is needed. Is the custodial function a profession acknowledged as such ? This paper also addresses this issue.