Year
2009
Abstract
The development of new or the upgrade of existing physical protection systems (PPS) for nuclear facilities involves a multi-step and multidimensional process. The process consists of conceptual design, design, and commissioning stages. The activities associated with each of these stages are governed by Russian government and agency regulations. To ensure a uniform approach to development or upgrading of PPS at Russian nuclear facilities, the development of a range of regulatory and methodological documents is necessary. Some issues of PPS development are covered by the regulatory documents developed by the State Corporation for Atomic Energy (Rosatom), as well as other Russian agencies with nuclear facilities under their control. This regulatory development has been accomplished as part of the U.S.-Russian Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program cooperation or independently by the Russian Federation. While regulatory coverage is extensive, there are a number of issues such as vulnerability analysis, effectiveness assessment, upgrading PPS, and protection of information systems for PPS that require additional regulations be developed. Physical protection requirements for various Russian agencies and their respective facilities may vary based on a number of factors. However, the design, development, and implementation of any PPS should follow a standardized methodology or approach. In order to ensure uniformity of approaches to development or upgrading PPS across the various Russian agencies, as well as the need to optimize design and development costs, a new approach to the development of regulatory documents of mutual interest is being implemented. Under this approach, joint working groups consisting of experts from various agencies develop a “model document,” which is then enacted with minimal adjustments reflecting specific requirements of each agency. A “model document” ensures that certain standards are adhered to while at the same time providing enough flexibility in its implementation to allow agencies to meet their respective needs. This approach eliminates the need to develop completely separate documents for different agencies. This paper reports on the status of regulatory coverage for PPS development or upgrade, and outlines a new approach to regulatory document development. It describes the evolutionary process of regulatory development through experience gained in the design, development and implementation of PPS as well as experience gained through the cooperative efforts of Russian and U.S. experts involved the development of MPC&A regulations.