Collaborative Approaches to Nuclear Material Security. A Model for Integration - Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI)

The cooperation between the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sandia Laboratories and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the Department of Energy of the USA started in 1996 and to date a significant improvement of the physical protection was achieved at the nuclear facilities of the institute. This cooperation is based on the bilateral agreement between the Russian Federation and United States of America on safe transportation, storage and disposal of weapons and prevention of weapons proliferation, signed in June 1992. Before beginning of the negotiations on receiving support in 1996 the PNPI had had to postpone construction of protective barriers due to the lack of funding. The first agreement with Sandia Labs allowed to continue the work and build the barriers at the most vulnerable locations by 1998. Intense joint effort was taken as a continuation of works in 2001, which was facilitated by the signing of the “Agreement on collaboration in the field of physical protection, control and accounting of nuclear materials” between the governments of the RF and the USA in 1999 and the extension of the agreement in 2000 on collaboration in the field of modernization of the national systems of physical protection, accounting and control of nuclear materials between the regulatory body of Russia on nuclear and radiation protection (former Gosatomnadzor, State Atomic Inspection) and the Department of Energy of the USA.