ENSURING LONG-TERM OPERATION OF MPC&A UPGRADES AT SSC-RIAR, DIMITROVGRAD, AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM INSTALLED SYSTEMS AT COMMISSIONED SITES

Under the U.S. Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) Program, ensuring the continued operation, maintenance, repair, upgrade, and staffing associated with installed MPC&A systems is the ultimate measure of successful establishment of safeguards and security at Russian sites. The installed systems eventually must be operable solely by the Russian sites using the resources and infrastructure in place at and supported by the site to maintain positive control over the nuclear materials. When considered as a process, sustainability has several aspects, each of which is an element of or contributes to the needed infrastructure for self-sustained MPC&A operation. Lessons learned in developing sustainable MPC&A systems at the commissioned sites have contributed to suggestions for effective technology integration and the development of an indigenous support infrastructure for continuous MPC&A operations. This paper focuses on the sustainability process, the lessons learned, and the approaches taken at the Dimitrovgrad site to ensure continued nuclear material security. Some of the elements discussed will be training, procedures, infrastructure enhancements, and maintenance issues and the way they are implemented in the upgrade process.