U.S./Russian cooperative efforts to enhance nuclear MPC&A at VNIITF, (Chelyabinsk-70)

The work described here is part of an effort called the Nuclear Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) Program, a cooperative program between the US Department of Eenrgy (DOE) and Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (MinAtom). The objective of the program is to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation by strengthening MPC&A systems at Russian nuclear Facilities. This paper describes that portion of the MPC&A program that is directed specifically to the needs of the All Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (VNIITF), also called Chelyabinsk-70. A major MPC&A milestone was met at VNIITF when the MPC&A improvements were commissioned at the Pulse Research Reactor Facility in May of this year.