The Infrastructure Necessary to Support a Sustainable Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program in Russia

The NNSA Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program has been engaged for fifteen years in upgrading the security of nuclear materials in Russia. Part of the effort has been to establish the conditions necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of nuclear security. A sustainable program of nuclear security requires the creation of an indigenous infrastructure, starting with sustained high level government commitment. This includes organizational development, training, maintenance, regulations, inspections, and a strong nuclear security culture. The provision of modern physical protection, control, and accounting equipment to the Russian Federation alone is not sufficient. Comprehensive infrastructure projects support the Russian Federation's ability to maintain the risk reduction achieved through upgrades to the equipment. To illustrate the contributions to security, and challenges of implementation, this paper discusses the history and next steps for an indigenous Tamper Indicating Device (TID) program, and a Radiation Portal Monitoring (RPM) program.