The MC&A Council at SSC RF - IPPE as a Coordinating Body for System Sustainability*

The State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute of Physics and Power Engineering’s (SSC RF - IPPE) practice of nuclear material control and accounting (MC&A) has undergone significant changes during the period of cooperation with U.S. national laboratories from 1995 to the present. These changes corresponded with general changes of the Russian system of state control and accounting of nuclear materials resulting from the new Concept of the System for State Regulating and Control of Nuclear Materials (1996) and further regulatory documents, which were developed and implemented to take into account international experience in the MC&A [1]. During the upgrades phase of Russian-U.S. cooperation, an MC&A laboratory was specially created within the SSC RF - IPPE for the purpose of guiding the creation of the upgraded MC&A system, coordinating the activities of all units involved in the creation of this system, and implementing a unified technical policy during the transition period. After five years of operation of the MC&A laboratory and the implementation of new components for the upgraded MC&A system, it was decided that a greater degree of attention must be paid to the MC&A system’s operation in addition to the coordination activities carried out by the MC&A laboratory. To meet this need, an organization for operation of the nuclear material (NM) control and accounting system was created as part of the Division of NM Transportation and Storage. It was also recognized that a new mechanism was required for effective coordination of MC&A activities in IPPE, including the implementation of a unified MC&A policy in methodological, technical and practical areas. This mechanism should allow the IPPE management to gain an objective evaluation of the MC&A system status and provide leading specialists with objective recommendations on maintenance of MC&A system and on basic directions for further improvements. Preliminary discussions indicated that such a mechanism could be created through the establishment of an MC&A Council at SSC RF - IPPE. The MC&A Council has been created in SSC RF - IPPE as an advisory body without administrative functions. However it is stated in the Council Regulations that if the IPPE Director General or his Deputy responsible for NM control and accounting approves Council recommendations, the recommendations become obligatory. In this paper, the experience of the Council and its initial activities are presented and discussed in, as are possible activities and roles the Council could play in the future.