Progress and Future Plans for MPC&A at Chelyabinsk-70

This paper describes that portion of the Nuclear Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program that is directed specifically to the needs of the All Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (VNIITF), also called Chelyabinsk-70. Chelyabinsk-70 is located in the Ural Mountains, approximately 2000 km east of Moscow and 100 km south of Ekaterinburg. The MPC&A work that has been completed, is underway and planned at the facility will be described. During the first two years of the VNIITF project, emphasis was on the Pulse Research Reactor Facility (PRR), which contains one metal and two liquid pulse reactors and associated nuclear material storage rooms and a control center. A commissioning of the PRR was held in May of 1998. With the completion of the MPC&A work in the PRR, new physical protection work is focusing on other areas. VNIITF-wide physical protection initiatives underway include access control and computerized badging systems, and a central MPC&A control system. Measured physical inventory taking is a high priority for the VNIITF Project Team. A VNIITF-wide computerized accounting system is also being developed for the large and diverse inventory of nuclear material subject to MPC&A.