The U.S. EROA Safeguards Technology Training Program

The timely transfer of newly developed safeguards technology to the nuclear community is essential to provide guidance for upgrading current safeguards procedures and planning for safeguarding the increasing quantities of commercial nuclear fuels. One efficient method for technology transfer is the U.S. ERDA Safeguards Technology Training Program, the evolution of which is shown in Fig. 1. The training program began in 1973 when the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission authorized the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Safeguards Program to conduct a course on the fundamentals of nondestructive assay (NDA) of special nuclear materials (SNM). Initially, the enrollment was limited to AEC inspectors, but in 1974 was extended to include government contractor personnel and later was opened to the entire national and international safeguards communities. The annual program curriculum now consists of four one-week courses, three of which are concerned with NDA techniques and instrumentation and one that presents an overview of integrated safeguards systems. Participants in the training courses routinely include representatives of U.S. ERDA, U.S. NRC, the national laboratories, private industry, and the IAEA.