Year
2005
Abstract
As part of the 1993 Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation Concerning the Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium Extracted From Nuclear Weapons, a transparency protocol was negotiated and implemented that outlines, among other things, the purpose, methods, and procedures for ensuring the objectives of the agreement are being met. The use of tags and seals was implemented in this bilateral transparency regime to allow for item tracking and tamper indication. Specifically, this discussion will focus on tags and seals, or tamper indicating devices (TID), that are used to detect unauthorized access to locations and equipment. Unique to this regime, the TIDs are frequently applied by the host country under the observation of United States (US) monitors. TIDs can also be removed by the host country. This method of TID handling provides challenges and issues that other regimes, such as the NPT Safeguards regime, are typically not required to address. We will present the types of TIDs currently used in the program, their application, and lessons learned.