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Newsletter:  October 2003/ Issue 5
Enhancing the Security of Nuclear Materials

by Todd Peterson, PNWCGS Staff

The Russian Methodological and Training Center (RMTC) on Nuclear Materials Control and Accounting (NMC&A) plays a prominent role in improving the security of weapons-usable nuclear materials of the former Soviet Union. Created in November 1996 by special Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM) decree, the Center is a collaboration between MINATOM, the European Commission and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Material Protection, Control and Accounting Program (MPC&A). The RMTC’s purpose is to provide advanced technologies for nuclear materials accounting and control, and to conduct theoretical and practical training for the staff, government officials and inspectors of nuclear facilities. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was given lead responsibility for the development of the training Center from its beginning, and continued with a single project manager until April of 2002.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left the former nation’s nuclear materials inventory and advanced weapons technology in the hands of new states with limited resources to maintain and safeguard these materials and technology properly. This made them more vulnerable to theft and diversion to rogue states or terrorists. Of urgent concern was the diminished security of large quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, the essential components of nuclear weapons.

In response to this threat, DOE created the Russia-Newly Independent States Nuclear Materials Security Task Force. The Task Force assisted nations of the former Soviet Union (FSU) to improve their nuclear weapons material security, inventory control and accounting. The “task force” has evolved into a more expansive organization of multiple MPC&A programs, that continues to make much impact on the large task of securing tens of tons of weapons-usable nuclear material throughout the FSU and installing physical detection devices such as motion detectors, surveillance cameras and vibration sensors at multiple nuclear sites targeted for security upgrades.

The RMTC, established at the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) in Obninsk, 100 miles southwest of Moscow, conducts material control and accounting education and training. The RMTC collaborates with the Interdepartmental Special Training Center (ISTC), which offers instruction on physical protection of nuclear facilities; and the State Central Institute for Continuing Education (SCI), which hosts RMTC-related conferences and symposia, and gives professional development and refreshment training to nuclear scientists and technicians. The ISTC and SCI are both located in Obninsk, and instructors commonly do “guest lectures” at each other’s facilities.

The RMTC also develops guidance for implementing new federal and MINATOM regulations on nuclear materials control and accounting. For example, the RMTC assisted in development of new Russian Federal NMC&A Rules and the manual for applying these rules. The RMTC also developed techniques for monitoring the Uranium 235 content in the filter systems and equipment of nuclear facilities and for measuring the mass of plutonium in waste. The Center is now developing a cross-calibration technique for active neutron coincidence counters.

To date the RMTC has trained 3,800 staff and inspectors from more than 40 nuclear facilities throughout Russia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The RMTC operates seven training laboratories, and offers more than 40 courses covering beginning to advanced nuclear materials control and accounting topics. The curriculum consists of 27 courses divided into six series. Subjects range from computerized nuclear materials accounting, product sample analysis and mass and volume measurement technologies, to assessment of system effectiveness, and the uses of statistical methods for verification of inventories. On-site courses offered by the RMTC include bar-code technology, tamper-indicating device technologies, physical inventory taking, and basic material control and accounting techniques. In addition, the RMTC has begun supporting International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Inspector training, and has provided real-life inspection training for several groups of new IAEA MC&A inspectors.

Perhaps just as important as technical education are the communications and shared purpose the RMTC provides to nuclear scientists and technicians throughout Russia. The RMTC has given them a vehicle through which to communicate, a physical venue to meet, to share lessons-learned and work together to solve common problems. At the RMTC people get to know their counterparts from other institutions and facilities to create a network with which to work in addressing the challenges of managing nuclear materials from “cradle to grave.”

At the beginning of the RMTC’s operation, Russian partners primarily used the American curriculum. Today, curriculum development and instruction is 100 percent Russian, with staff comprised of experts from IPPE, MINATOM, Gosatomnadzor and major Russian enterprises. RMTC future plans include expansion of its course selection, construction of a larger computer center, and provision of CD-ROM courses and three-dimensional video imagery technology to facilitate training in nuclear material safeguards and accounting. A principal challenge for the Center is how to make its training more widely available in a country as vast as Russia.

Debbie Dickman, PNNL Manager for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Programs, says that the RMTC, now well into its 8th year of operation, has strongly expanded the breadth and depth of training and education capabilities. There is a strong mutual Russian-American interest in engagement and education concerning methods and technologies supporting nonproliferation and materials control and counting, as well as technical content of the training and education itself.

“Is the RMTC living up to initial expectations for it? The answer can be found in the opinions of the many of the Russians who participate in the training. In some cases these individuals travel for days to get to the RMTC for a course. They look to the RMTC and its staff as expert resources for technical problem solving and formation of methodological enhancements. They speak about the training as providing them with life-changing events. They believe the Center is important to Russia’s future. Having been part of its growth and development from the beginning, I share that feeling and believe that the RMTC can play a central role in the modernizing of Russia’s nonproliferation and materials control and accounting systems.”

The international Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) acknowledged the contributions of the RMTC with the Institute’s 2003 Special Industry Service Award. This special award is given very infrequently to an organization or entity that provides special and unique service to the nonproliferation and nuclear materials management world community. This award was prepared and sponsored by the US, the European Commission and numerous members of the international community. It reads, in part:

With strong policy support from officials in the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy, the Commission of the European Community, and the United States Department of Energy/Nuclear Security Administration, our recipient has developed an MC&A (materials control and accounting) curriculum of over 30 courses in the short time it has been operating. Our recipient, as part of the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, is not limited to a teaching curriculum. Its hard-working staff regularly presents papers at the INMM and ESARDA annual meetings; hosts and organizes the Tripartite Seminar series; provides consulting; leads in the development of several critical regulatory documents, standards and norms pertaining to improved safeguards practices; develops nuclear reference materials; and translates training material into Russian. In its spare time this same staff also supports the Russian nuclear complex by way of a mobile training team.

For outstanding contributions to the domestic and international nuclear industry, for its ability to reach solutions to complex, difficult MC&A challenges please join me in recognizing the recipient of the INMM 2003 Special Service Award, the Russian Methodological and Training Center. To accept the award is the Director, and really the father of the RMTC, Dr. Boris Ryazanov.

In his presentation to the Institute’s 2003 meeting, Dr. Ryazanov said, “The RMTC is playing a significant part in the reforming of the Russian national NMC&A system, and in the foreseeable future, thanks to the fruitful collaboration with the US national labs and EC JRC (European Community Joint Research Center), it will have a profound impact on this system by continuing to train experts and by providing technical and scientific assistance to agencies and facilities.”

Dr. Ryazanov goes on to say, “It is important to mention that the RMTC is going to become one of the most important structures ion the world of NMAC, capable of providing training and methodological approaches. As such the RMTC is able to provide support to international safeguards and non-proliferation in both the training and methodological areas. Therefore the RMTC has a future role as international training and reference center, besides its important national role.”