Nuclear Forensics Sustainability and Cooperation: Inter-laboratory Exercises
and International Cooperation on Nuclear Forensics

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Global Material Security (DOE/NNSA/GMS) and European Commission's Joint Research Centre (ECJRC) have a long-standing cooperation in the area of nuclear security, including cooperative regional nuclear forensics capacity-building initiatives. Within the framework of the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), GMS and EC-JRC collaborated with Armenian and Georgian partners to develop a project designed to support sustainable nuclear forensics capacity in each country, and to exchange best practices between countries. This project commenced in September 2021 and has a performance period of 3 years. The implementation of the project over the past year has seen several significant collaborative engagements between nuclear forensics experts in Georgia and Armenia. Through tight coordination between scientific institutions and the government agencies of Armenia and Georgia, high-level interregional/international collaboration (USA, EU, South Caucasian countries) became a real possibility. By identifying the strength of each partner, project work has enabled the sharing of the best practices in the field of nuclear forensics, including organizing practical trainings, development and adoption of documentation, and sharing experience for reinforcing regional cooperation and international partnerships. These regional partners represent an excellent model for collaboration; this paper will describe the project work and collaborative approach.