Nuclear Safeguards and Material Control and Accountability Training Capabilities at the Andronikashvili Institute of Physics

In 2010 the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided to offer an inspector training course on sampling hot cells and gloveboxes for determination of the types of activities that had occurred in a nuclear facility. After visiting several potential sites it was determined that the Nuclear Center of the Andronikashvili Institute of Physics in Tbilisi, Georgia was the ideal site for this training. This nuclear center consists of a decommissioned IRT reactor with hot cell, glovebox, and storage facilities. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Andronikashvili Institute of Physics designed a course for DOE incorporating the hot cells and associated infrastructure at the Institute’s nuclear center to train IAEA safeguards personnel on hot cell and glovebox sampling technologies. The fact that hot cells and gloveboxes of the nuclear center are clean provides IAEA inspectors with a unique opportunity to get a thorough understanding of hot cells and glovebox design, and to enhance their level of knowledge, skills and confidence for performing verification activities at facilities with hot cells and gloveboxes. The instructors are a mix of Georgian and US scientists with extensive experience in nuclear and hot cell facilities. The first offering of this course for IAEA inspectors was given in 2011. Eight inspectors attended the first course and provided feedback indicating that the course could fill an important gap in inspectors training. At the request of the IAEA, annual training classes have been organized. This training assists the student to identify effective sampling locations by allowing them access to the inside of environmentally clean hot cells. After initial classroom training, the students are given demonstrations of sampling tools, tours inside the hot cells and the support facilities, and participate in a final exercise including a sampling campaign and evaluation of mock results of sample analyses in order to identify simulated past separation activities conducted in the hot cells. A description of the current training course and facilities at the Nuclear Center will be presented along with their relevance in training staff from the IAEA Department of Safeguards.