Workshop on Design and Testing for High Reliability: Challenges and Progress

The Workshop on Design and Testing for High Reliability took place at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), 15-17 October 2001. This was the third annual workshop sponsored by the Subgroup on Safeguards Technical Support on a topic of major interest for IAEA safeguards. The International Safeguards Project Office (ISPO) and BNL organized this year’s workshop. During the previous year the IAEA had made significant progress in resolving radiation-related effects that had caused difficulties with unattended surveillance instrumentation installed at some facilities under IAEA safeguards. Therefore the Workshop covered a broader range of experience addressing theoretical and practical aspects of instrument failure in radiation environments, single-event effects, design and testing to ensure reliability, and additional procedures to assure reliability through the acquisition and maintenance processes. The workshop was well attended with 60 participants and only a very small number of cancellations because of the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001. The IAEA representatives thought that the Workshop had been extremely worthwhile and had effectively addressed matters of concern to them. It had demonstrated that the best designs, expertise, and instrumentation-technology projects worldwide were available to the IAEA through the Member State support programs. The paper highlights the important issues discussed at the Workshop. Many challenges facing the IAEA were reviewed and remain to be resolved. These include more precise specification of design requirements and user needs, better characterization of the environments in which instruments are installed, configuration control and the alternatives available to a small volume customer like the IAEA in obtaining service and support from large vendors, and more thorough failure reporting and better records to support a proactive maintenance and replacement program. The IAEA acknowledged that continuing support from Member States is vital for the IAEA's safeguards instrumentation program. Planning and progress in meeting these challenges by both the IAEA and the US Support Program will be reviewed considering realistic resource constraints.