Advancing Transportation Security During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Advancing Transportation Security during the COVID-19 PandemicKaren Kaldenbach: Oak Ridge National LaboratoryBouchra Boustani: Agence Marocaine de Sûreté et de Sécurité Nucléaires et RadiologiquesAllison Parnell: Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryAbstractThe world observed many negative changes from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021—loss of life, health issues, businesses shutdowns, and adjusted operations for those working to maintain continuity. Workers who support essential functions learned (often with difficulty) how to endure and continue to provide crucial services. The Agence Marocaine de Sûreté et de Sécurité Nucléaires et Radiologiques (AMSSNuR) is one such organization. AMSSNuR serves as the regulatory body in Morocco responsible for protecting the public and environment against the risks associated with activities involving ionizing radiation. To ensure it continued to meet this goal, AMSSNuR staff maintained operations during the entire pandemic and even advanced in several areas. One area of advancement for AMSSNuR was supporting the secure transportation of radioactive materials. AMSSNuR staff improved their skills and knowledge to support transportation security activities in Morocco via virtual training opportunities supported by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in an effort sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Radiological Security. AMSSNuR and Oak Ridge National Laboratory collaborated on customized training to support the development of a guidance document for transportation security plans. AMSSNuR can provide this guidance document to operators and carriers who support radioactive shipments in Morocco to ensure all necessary activities are in place for shipments to meet regulatory requirements. AMSSNuR staff also improved their skills conducting inspections via specific training on the transportation security regulation. This paper will detail the process and results of these efforts and highlight positive outcomes during a difficult period.