Utilizing NN-SITE for Testing Remote Monitoring Systems

Aquila, a Canberra Company, is a significant ISO 9001-certified supplier of Safeguards products to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to CEC Euratom (CEC). Currently, these inspection agencies and others are employing the advantages of remote monitoring to reduce (a) the number of on-site inspections, (b) worker radiation exposure, and (c) intrusion to facility operations. However, remote monitoring systems installed during the past several years have typically been unique according to each facility’s layout, communications standards, and the special materials being monitored. Therefore, costs for design, installation, start-up, and maintenance are often considerable. The purpose of the Non-Proliferation Networked Safeguards Instrument Testbed (NN-SITE) facility--established in a 1996 project by the US Department of Energy, Aquila, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories--is to provide a fully networked facility for testing remote monitoring safeguards instruments developed by the US National Laboratories and Commercial Vendors. Located at Aquila’s facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the testbed is run under the auspices of ISO 9001, a quality model which is essential to the initial acceptance of prototype safeguards systems by agencies such as IAEA and CEC. To date, NN-SITE test efforts have allowed equipment providers and system integrators to deploy remote monitoring systems that meet nuclear non-proliferation and safeguards objectives while minimizing installation and maintenance costs.