Physical Protection Information Database Development at the Interdepartmental Special Training Center

The following paper provides a general overview of the development and implementation of an information database that will be used by the community of Russian physical protection specialists, nuclear facility security managers, and equipment vendors and manufacturers to promote the knowledge of current and emerging physical protection technology. This database was developed by the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency’s (Rosatom) Interdepartmental Special Training Center with assistance provided from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program. One of the more difficult aspects involving the upgrade of physical protection systems was the lack of knowledge of existing physical protection technology and its employment in the Russian environment. This lack of knowledge made the upgrade decision process all the more difficult when the process was complicated by the need to adhere to Russian regulations regarding licensing, certification, attestation, and official acceptance. The development of an information database for physical protection equipment facilitates the selection of the appropriate technology based on physical protection design objectives for a given facility. This paper identifies the process for developing the database and the key individuals and organizations involved. It also outlines the approach taken in determining user requirements and designing the database architecture. The authors share the developer’s initial concerns over issues relative to sharing proprietary information and ensuring website security as well as the need to design a platform that a large community of select users could access and utilize. The final product resulted in a tool that enables the Russian physical protection community to adopt a life cycle approach along with a rigorous requirements based methodology to selecting and maintaining physical protection systems.