SHARING RESOURCES IN SECURITY MONITORING SYSTEMS

Centralized monitoring and control systems for security at nuclear material sites have been in use for many years but increasing demands for expansion, flexibility, redundancy and system integrity have exceeded the capabilities of traditional systems. Furthermore, costs have been rising at apace which exceeds the budgetary restraints of our current economy. A new concept has been developed which allows for sharing resources to provide extraordinary security measures in a costeffective manner . Key factors include a security software application program which would reside in an existing host computer; a common communications network; and aprotocol compatible security data terminal. The concept has been established with financial institutions in their branch bank and major building security programs . Dedicated host versions of this idea have been employed within the Department of Energy . A shared resource program could provide optimum security at an affordable cost for nuclear materials facilities.