Year
2002
Abstract
Acceleration of the Protective Force Project in the form of rapid equipment upgrades has had an immediate impact on reduction of risk to Sensitive Nuclear Material (SNM), and has facilitated long-term infrastructure upgrades that will have a continuing influence on Russia’s ability to protect material. Surveying Russia’s protective forces to determine and justify upgrades has, until October 2001, been a somewhat difficult task. Protective Forces at sites belonging to the Ministry of Atomic Energy (MinAtom) belong in most cases to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Sensitivities on both sides caused protective force work to proceed with caution. The Project Team had been slowly overcoming these barriers and sensitivities through a process of rapport and trust building at the national and regional level. Proposed changes to protective force infrastructure and a draw down in MI protective forces caused MinAtom to ask the PF Project Team for assistance in institutionalizing and deploying their Departmental Protective Forces in 2000 and 2001. In the midst of this rapprochement, the tragic events of September 11th caused a deepening of sympathy and cooperation on the Russian side. In this milieu in October 2001, the MPC&A Program management made an offer to accelerate protective force equipment upgrades. In November 2001, rapid upgrades were authorized at 16 MinAtom sites, with a total of $3M in contracts for over 35,000 individual pieces of equipment. Work continues to try and include a total of 41 critical MinAtom sites into the rapid upgrade process, insuring adequate survivability and response time of protective forces. This initiative, along with deeper, infrastructural upgrades, will provide MinAtom with an adequate, integrated, and self-sustaining protective force for the 21st Century.