Equipment Assessment Project For MPC&A Cooperation With Russia

This paper outlines the role of the Equipment Assessment Project in the Department of Energy's Nuclear Material Protection, Control and Accounting(MPC&A) Program and, within that program its role in the Program-Wide Sustainability (WS) initiative. Th e Program-Wide Sustainability initiative is an integral conponent of the MPC&A Program. One of the cornerstones of the PWS initiative is the Equipment Assessment Project. This effort addresses the need to ensure the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of installed MPC&S equipment by establishing a Russian capability to evaluate MPC&A equipment and equipment suppliers. The primary goal of the Equipment Assessment Project is to develop processes and tools to assistt project site teams in selecting the most appropriate, commercially available, and sustainable MPC&A equipment, which contributes to the overall MPC&A Program goal of reucing the risk of theft of diversion of weapons-usable nuclear material. There are three components to the equipment Assessment PRoject's goal: (1)assess and evaulate MPC&A equipment and vendors for use at Russian sites; (2) promote long-term sustainability of MPC&A equipment through vendor evaluation and development of an MPC&A business infrastructure, and (3) promote Russian ownership of the process. The Equipment Assessment Project's goal will be met by achieving the following objectives: (1) establish the Russian capability to evaluate MPC&A equipment and suppliers;(2) generatie annual consure reports for all MPC&A equipment and MPC&A equipment vendors to help drive appropriate equipment and vendor selection;(3) create a vendor development activity to improve Russian equipment performance and vendor service;(4)assit in developing a process for the Russians to become experts in equioment certification using internationally-approved standards(e.g.,ISO 9000)