Personnel Training Program within Sustainability of Nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting System at the Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant

The Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEIP), located in Novouralsk, Russia, has cooperated with the US Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (US DOE/NNSA) Material Protection Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program since 1996 on nuclear material (NM) security upgrades. Upon successful implementation of the first stage of the NM MPC&A Program in 2004, UEIP started developing and implementing the robust sustainability program which includes the UEIP Personnel Training Program based on the systematic approach, consisting of Training Course Analysis, Design, Development, Delivery and Assessment. UEIP has three training facilities where training is delivered: protective force (PF), physical protection (PP), and material control and accounting (MC&A). The first is for Central Alarm and Secondary Alarm Station (CAS/SAS), Badge Office, Protective Force (PF) operators and other specialists receiving on-site training from Russian Methodological Training Center (RMTC) Interdepartmental Special Training Center (ISTC) Institute of Advanced Training (CIPK) and equipment vendors. The second is for training technicians on the testing, troubleshooting and repair of physical protection (PP) equipment. The third is for training MC&A personnel on regulatory documents, metrology, technical matters and information supporting NM handlers. Assessment and periodic analysis of training materials and students provides for optimization of operators and technical specialists’ training, their knowledge and skills with the equipment and software currently used at the Plant. Benefits of the UEIP training program include: on-site training as a part of new equipment installation, team building for operators, technical specialists and protective force staff during maintenance of PP equipment, travel cost reduction, and implementation of MPC&A personnel training requirements stipulated by the Rosatom State Corporation Order 248 dated April 20, 2009. The UEIP Training Program is an integral part of MPC&A Sustainability Program which ensures NM protection and security