An Exercise to Promote Nuclear Security Culture of Radioactive Sources

There are over a thousand radioactive facilities in Brazil, authorized by Brazilian National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), the nuclear regulatory body of Brazil. According CNEN, the main ones are: nuclear meters for process control (477), nuclear medicine (434), research (214), among other facilities. Ensuring the appropriate security of radioactive sources as well as nuclear material is crucial to reducing the risk of malicious acts, unauthorized material transfer and access, and sabotage. The main objective of this work is to develop an exercise through which students learn about security of radioactive sources. They learn how to categorize the sources and define levels of security for a hypothetical facility based on the implementing guide from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nuclear Security Series No. 11 – Security of Radioactive Sources, and the regulation from Brazilian National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), and propose alterations to adapt the facility to the required security level if necessary. The exercise is divided in three parts. In the first part, the IAEA and CNEN regulations are presented, so that the students learn how to categorize sources and what security criteria are required by each category. In the second part, the students will receive information about the facility configuration with radioactive sources such as Cobalt (Co), Cesium (Cs), Selenium (Se), Iridium (Ir), and analyze the security requirements for each source, so that they can apply the knowledge acquired in the first part of the exercise. In the last part, students present what they have learned and discuss security levels, what improvements can be made to the facility, whether they have observed security breaches or not. Upon completion of the exercise, students will increase their knowledge about nuclear security culture and develop a critical view about the subject.