Sustainability of Upgraded MPC&A Systems at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Production Association Electrochemical Plant

The Electrochemical Plant (ECP), or the Krasnoyarsk-45 (K-45) site, is a nuclear weapons material processing facility in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia. Since 1996, the U.S. Department Of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) program has worked with ECP to upgrade their material protection, control, and accounting systems on site. The U.S. has committed significant resources to improve their MPC&A infrastructure. All comprehensive upgrades at ECP were completed in fiscal year 2004, and the site was commissioned in December 2004. Starting in fiscal year 2005, ECP has been placed in an “operations and sustainability” phase by DOE/NNSA. The main objectives of this phase are to (i) ensure that the upgraded MPC&A systems are integrated with site safeguards and security program and aligned with process and mission; (ii) ensure that appropriate infrastructure and operations elements are in place for continued long-term operations of upgraded MPC&A systems; and (iii) plan and develop a transition strategy to transfer the responsibility of ECP MPC&A upgrades to one fully supported by Russian Federation. This paper identifies integration, operations, and sustainability requirements for the MPC&A upgrades and the steps taken towards the integration and implementation of sustainable operations elements at ECP. We also discuss requirements for MPC&A program transitioning, guided by U.S. and Russian government management policy and assurance, as it applies to ECP.