SAFEGUARDS AND SECURITY POLICY REVIEW – ONE YEAR LATER

In February 2007, the Office of Security Policy began a major review and revision of DOE safeguards and security policy. One of the major issues to be addressed was how to translate the concept of “tell the contractor what to do, not how to do it” into formal policy. At the same time, there had been a call within the DOE community for recognition within DOE directives that each site had unique concerns. (“One size does not fit all.”) The Office of Security Policy determined that policy could most effectively respond to these concerns by re-emphasizing two fundamental concepts: 1) the level of protection required is set by the asset being protected, not the type of facility providing the protection; and 2) protection effectiveness – the goal of all safeguards and security policy -- should be measured by demonstrated performance, not simply by the degree of compliance with directives. These concepts have been the underpinning of DOE safeguards and security policy for many years, but, as policy implementation issues had been addressed by various “patches” over the years, the focus upon these important principles had been lessened in published policy. This paper will explain how the focused application of these underlying concepts during the review of safeguards and security policy has resulted in directives that are reduced in volume, that provide an improved delineation of Federal and contractor roles and responsibilities, and utilize a basic format design that clearly reinforces the concept that required protection increases as the value of the protected asset increases. Our efforts over the past year have been focused upon modification of the seven 470.4-series manuals and the primary security program order, DOE Order 470.4A and final results of these efforts will be presented. In addition, this paper will discuss the initiatives that have been recently begun or soon will be begun to follow-up the re-write of the basic directives set.