MEASUREMENTS ON MATERIAL TO BE STORED AT THE MAYAK FISSILE MATERIAL STORAGE FACILITY

The Fissile Material Control Program (FMCP) of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program has a requirement to provide confidence that the material to be stored in the Fissile Material Storage Facility (FMSF) at Mayak is derived from dismantled nuclear weapons. Technical experts from the U.S. met with technical experts from the Russian Federation (RF) to define measurable attributes that would satisfy the confidence requirement. The U.S. experts identified six attributes, proposed appropriate unclassified thresholds for each attribute, and suggested measurement techniques to gather the data. The RF has not agreed to these transparency measures, primarily, for fear of revealing classified information. The U.S. negotiators have assured the RF that the measurements can be made without revealing classified information through the use of a measurement system with an integrated information barrier. The U.S. invited RF technical experts to witness a demonstration of a proof-of-concept measurement system on a classified U.S. weapon component to demonstrate that classified information can be protected. This paper describes the Attribute Measurement System with Information Barrier (AMS/IB), the procedures to be implemented for the planned demonstration, summarizes some of the operational experience with the equipment, and outlines the plan for the cooperative U.S. – RF development of the system to be used at the FMSF.