ESTABLISHMENT AND PROVISION OF LONG-TERM SUSTAINED OPERATION OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL PHYSICAL PROTECTION, ACCOUNTING, AND CONTROL SYSTEM AT THE JOINT INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) has participated in the joint U.S. – Russian Federation (RF) Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program for more than 10 years and has been successfully maintaining the MPC&A systems for several years. As part of the cooperative MPC&A program for sustaining upgraded MPC&A systems, the two sides have agreed on “Operational Elements” that must be in place to ensure the long-term effective operation of MPC&A systems. This paper will summarize the MPC&A system at JINR and the status of the Operational Elements from a Russian perspective. The paper will include the following: 1. A summary of how MPC&A is organized and implemented at JINR. 2. An overview of staffing and training for operation and maintenance of Physical Protection (PP) and Material Control and Accounting (MC&A) systems. This will include a brief description of methods used for maintenance and calibration of MPC&A systems with one or two examples. 3. An overview of the direct and ancillary costs of operating and maintaining the upgraded physical protection, material accounting, and material control systems at JINR. 4. A review of JINR documents and procedures needed for effective implementation of MPC&A using confirmatory measurements by nondestructive assay (NDA) as an example. 5. A description of the controls and oversight JINR implements to ensure the configuration of the MPC&A system is not negatively impacted by other activities at the site. The report will summarize the results based on more than 10 years of operational experience and summarize work to make the MPC&A systems more effective and/or efficient.