TRAINING ON URANIUM ENRICHMENT SAFEGUARDS MEASURES FOR THE ARGENTINE NUCLEAR REGULATORY AUTHORITY

Since October 2006, the Argentine Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) collaborated to train ARN’s nuclear material safeguards staff in the areas of safeguardsrelevant features of uranium enrichment operations. This work has been performed pursuant to the safeguards agreement between DOE and ARN for international safeguards research and development cooperation in the areas of nuclear material control, accountancy, verification, physical protection, and advanced containment and surveillance. Three workshops conducted over a four-year period focused on increasing levels of training, ranging from safeguards fundamentals to more advanced safeguards inspection topics. The workshop participants included ARN officials, instructors, facility operators, and safeguards professionals. The three training courses were jointly taught by ARN and U.S. subject matter experts. The first two workshops, Introductory Level in November 2007 and Intermediate Level in September 2008, were hosted by ARN in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The third and final workshop in the series, Advanced Level, was hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in September 2010. The first and third workshops included tours of uranium enrichment plants in the respective countries so that the participants could observe the application of the lessons learned during the training. The workshop participants visited the Pilcaniyeu Gaseous Diffusion Plant during the introductory workshop in Argentina and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant during the advanced workshop in United States. Through this initiative, ORNL, on behalf of DOE, was able to assist ARN in strengthening the application of international safeguards of nuclear materials and facilities and to demonstrate methodologies for determining the appropriate safeguards approach for uranium enrichment plants. This paper discusses the significance of this effort, the organization of the three workshops, their goals and objectives, training programs, results, and feedback received from the participants.