Year
1999
Abstract
In 1996 cooperation between the USA and Russia on join reduction of nuclear threat was broadened, and in it, among other things, there was strengthening of the defense, oversight, and accountability for nuclear materials on nuclear facilities of the Russian Federation Navy (RFN). Mainly, the concern is for the security of fuel assemblies having highly enriched nuclear fuel. The Navy is concerned over the safety of the unused nuclear fuel. In June 1996 a joint statement on cooperation between the Ministries of Defense of the Russian Federation, the US Department of Energy, and the Kurchatov Institute was signed in the area of nuclear Material Protection, Accounting, and Control (MPC&A), emphasizing the significance of providing for guarantees of the security and safety of nuclear fule in the Navy. In the Statement, it was specifically indicated that the Russian Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Energy decided to provide high standards of oversight, accounting, and protection of nuclear materials in all Russian Navy land-based storage areas, wherever there is unused fuel with highly enriched uranium for naval nuclear reactors. This activity is coordinated and conducted within the framework of the DOE MPC&A program on the U.S. side, and the Ministry of Defense and Kurchatov Institute on the Russian side.