MODERNIZATION AND ENHANCEMENT OF NMAC AT THE MAYAK RT-1 PLANT

The RT-1 plant at the PA Mayak complex of the Russian Federation is an operating nuclear reprocessing facility for civil spent fuel of VVER-440 and BN-600 nuclear reactors, submarines, ice breakers and research reactors. Within the RF the RT-1 plant represents the future reprocessing facility for all the nuclear fuel from power reactors and power research reactors: as a consequence this site is of high importance concerning international nuclear safeguards. Several Nuclear Material Accountancy and Control (NMAC) system devices and techniques at the RT-1 plant were installed many years ago and are in need of modernization. Furthermore, the new Russian State System of Accountancy and Control (SSAC) imposes restructuring the accountancy and measurement approaches, and the implementation of the new system requires intensive personnel training, both in the use of instruments and in the application of NMAC procedures. The European Commission (EC) decided to support an approach for the modernization and enhancement of systems at the RT-1 plant, with the main scope of improving the NMAC at the facility. The results of former projects to enhance accountancy methods and measurements by the DoE (US) and DTI (UK) will be taken into account. The main objectives of the project are the implementation of the new system and the modernization of existing ones, coupled with intensive training in NMAC methodological activities for the staff. The project, when approved, will be carried out under the EC-TACIS program, by the Joint Research Centre, together with PA Mayak and the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), Obninsk. Several other subcontractors will be called upon for various kinds of technical support within the RF and the EU. This paper presents a summary of the project description and of the planned activities which will be carried out under the project in a tight collaboration between the EU and the RF.