Cooperative Efforts to Improve Nuclear Materials Accounting, Control and Physical Protection at the National Science Center “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ukrainian Government are engaged in a program of cooperation to enhance the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons by developing a strong national system of nuclear material protection, control, and accounting (MPC&A). This paper describes the capabilities and work of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) and cooperative efforts to improve MPC&A at this facility. It describes how these cooperative efforts grew out of Ukraine’s decision to become a non-nuclear weapon state and the shortcomings in MPC&A that developed at KIPT after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. It also envisions expanded fiture cooperation in other areas of nuclear materials management.