SAFEGUARDS TRAINING AT THE JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Nuclear Material management and verification activities have always made use of a large variety of technologies. In the last decade, new technologies have appeared on the scene and other technologies, traditionally employed for safeguards and non-proliferation purposes, have undergone rapid evolutions. Some political events during that period have created new scenarios in the international safeguards picture, determining needs for new technological approaches and therefore for training. Two of those events are worth mentioning, since they have introduced the largest changes so far: these are the decision of the Russian Federation to adapt their SSAC to international standards and the events involving Iraq. The first event has created, both in the RF and in other former Soviet Union countries, a huge need for training of operators and inspectors in the new technologies. The events involving Iraq have produced deep changes in safeguards approaches, with the introduction of new concepts such as strengthened and integrated safeguards and the Additional Protocol. These developments have heavily modified the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Training activities: the JRC has widened the areas of training and gives additional courses also to new partners: to ABACC inspectors in virtue of a cooperation agreement with the Argentinian- Brasilian Agency; to Minatom operators and Gozatomnadzor inspectors from the Russian Federation, to plant operators and inspectors of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KAEC) financed through the European Commission’s TACIS programme; to ESO and IAEA inspectors in high performance trace analysis for environmental monitoring; to scientists from Japan and Russia, in measurement techniques and nuclear metrology. After more recent dramatic evolutions, subjects like nuclear terrorism, illicit trafficking and physical protection of nuclear installations definitely are going to modify the mandate of safeguards, safety and security Authorities and, by consequence, new training needs are appearing on the scene. Within the JRC, the Institute for the Protection and the Safety of the Citizens (IPSC) at Ispra (I), the Transuranium Institute (TUI) in Karlsruhe (G) and the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) in Geel (B), have contributed to the safeguards R&D and support programmes. As a result of their efforts over many years, several dedicated training and calibration facilities have been set up as the basis of an important JRC training programme. This paper reports on the training programme of the JRC, the nature of the courses and the training facilities employed.