The Benefits Of Implementing A Central Monitoring Concept And Platforms In Ukraine

A criticalcomponent of effective security enhancements for sites that use or storeradioactive sources isthe process ofalarm monitoring and the associated response. Further, the use of off-sitealarm monitoring may serve as an insider threat mitigation measure. Effectiveoff-site alarm monitoring often involves connections to multiple sites andrequires coordination, procedures and training for all stakeholders.Traditionally,off-site alarm monitoring is accomplished by connecting each site toindependentmonitoringlocations via separate contracts and duplicating the technical and trainingprotocols andprocessesinvolved. This model led to high sustainability costs for the system.The U.S.National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Securitypartnered with theState NuclearRegulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) to implement a “centralized” conceptof alarmmonitoring toleverage technology to accomplish a more robust response process, whilelowering theoverall costs.SNRIU was able to further leverage this capability by using information fromthe Centralized Monitoring Station (CMS) to facilitate and prioritizeregulatory duties. This feature isparticularlybeneficial for regulatory authorities with limited number of security inspectorsand relativelyhigh volume oflicensed sites with nuclear and other radioactive material.This paper willprovide an overview of the centralized monitoring concept as well as highlightsome ofthe benefitsand lessons-learned with implementing this concept in Ukraine, including thefollowing:enhancement of SNRIU capabilities to assess licensees’ obligations regardinguse of physicalprotectionsystems under current regulatory requirements; cost-savings through economiesof scale;contractualsimplicity; insider threat mitigation; common method of training and procedureimplementationfor all stakeholders; ease of transitioning monitoring capability to a singlegovernmentagency;increased coordination and relationship building among licensees, CMS, andresponse agency;increased theprobability of a timely and efficient response to an alarm event; and improvedcoordination and communications during an alarm event.