Development of Minatom Regulatory Documents for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Facilities under MPC&A Program

This presentation covers the issues of improvement of regulatory background in the sphere of Physical Protection (PP) for nuclear materials (NM), nuclear facilities (NF) as one of the aspects in strengthening PP at Russian Minatom nuclear sites (NS). It gives the basic results of regulatory documents development in the sphere of PP for the period 1998 – 2001 within the framework of Cooperation Program between Minatom of Russia and the US Department of Energy on Material Protection, Control & Accounting (MPC&A). In particular, a joint US-Russian Coordination Group has been established for development of the above -mentioned documents. General structure of regulatory documentation and priorities in its development have been defined in the process of its work. Experts from the working group meet on regular basis in Russia and in the US. Seven Minatom regulatory documents have been developed and approved during 1999 – 2001, including the set of documents related to the issues of Physical Protection Systems (PPS) design, interaction of security force at site and MVD troops, management in Physical Protection systems, etc. Eight more PP regulatory documents are being developed currently. The Coordination Group has scheduled to develop 5 more documents in the nearest future. One Russian and two joint US-Russian workshops on scientific and technical problems have been held to discuss development of regulatory documents on physical protection of NM & NF.