Region-Specific Equipment Support and Strategic Vendor Relationships— A Case Study of the Siberian Training and Technical Support Center (STTSC)

The joint cooperative effort between the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Russian Federation's Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) and Gosatomnadzor (GAN) has entered into a new phase. DOE, Minatom, and GAN are working together to determine the best approach to improve a support infrastructure that provides long-term sustainability for Material Protection Control & Accounting (MPC&A) within the Russian Federation. One of the initiatives to improve the MPC&A support infrastructure is the development, improvement, and expansion of capabilities at the Siberian Training and Technical Support Center (STTSC). This paper discusses the role and capabilities of the STTSC, operated by the Metrology Department of the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) in Novosibirsk, Siberian Region, and Russia. The STTSC began during 1999 as an MPC&A Program-supported collaboration between the Siberian GAN Office and BINP. This collaboration has matured to the point that the STTSC is no longer considered a GAN or BINP activity, but as a stand-alone effort. The purpose of the STTSC is to ensure that equipment functionality and staff capability can be maintained over time in the region. Customers of the center include Minatom sites, GAN inspectors, the Customs Committee of the Russian Federation (CCRF), and other nuclear facilities or agencies. A regional center is more economical and efficient than a fully independent facility or full dependence on vendor support. The STTSC provides training for GAN Inspectors, as well as nuclear facility material control and accounting (MC&A) for equipment operators, and will expand to address physical protection and possibly protective force in the future. Training in Novosibirsk supplements the training provided by the Russian Methodological and Training Center and the Interdepartmental Special Training Centers, located in Obninsk, near Moscow. Local MPC&A training at the STTSC will focus on regional issues, and will save on Russian travel time and costs. This paper describes what is being done to develop a self-sustaining enterprise to support MPC&A training and equipment for GAN, Minatom, and other nuclear enterprises in the Siberian Region.