Evolution of Safeguards Training at Los Alamos National Laboratory

With the implementation of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the 1970s, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and national safeguards agencies needed the technical capability to verify declared inventories of nuclear materials. This led to 40 years of nondestructive assay (NDA) development at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and other sites. Early in the history of the LANL safeguards program, it was realized that IAEA inspectors and other NDA users needed training. The initial training course, offered in November 1973, was entitled, “Fundamentals of Nondestructive Assay with Portable Instrumentation.” This course has been presented almost every year since. The first IAEA inspector participation occurred in 1974. Over the years, nearly 300 courses have been presented to over 5,000 participants worldwide. After the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978 (NNPA), the IAEA requested that LANL develop a specific course for their inspectors that used only IAEA equipment and procedures. This course was conducted under the new Program of Technical Assistance to IAEA Safeguards (POTAS). The initial offering was in 1980 and, since then, every new IAEA inspector has participated in the two-week course. The NNPA also dictated that the U.S. provide international training in nuclear materials control and accounting (MC&A) and physical protection. In 1980, LANL presented a training course in Santa Fe and Los Alamos on “Implementing State Systems of Accounting and Control (SSAC) of Nuclear Materials.” Both domestic and international courses are offered by Los Alamos. These courses cover advanced gamma-ray and neutron assay techniques, waste and in-plant holdup assays, MC&A programs, statistics for MC&A, advanced plutonium verification techniques, and calorimetry. During the 1990s, the Nunn-Lugar Program supported many safeguards training programs both at LANL and in various facilities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. This paper will present the development and evolution of safeguards training at LANL from 1973 to the present and will also discuss plans for future activities.