DOE Lab-to-Lab MPC&A workshop for cooperative tasks with Russian institutes: Focus on critical assemblies and item facilities

Seventeen Russian scientists and engineers representing five different institutes participated in a Workshop on material control and accounting as part of the US-Russian Lab-to-Lab Cooperative Program in Nuclear Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A). In addition to presentations and discussions, the Workshop included an exercise at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and demonstrations at the Zero Power Physics Reactor (critical-assembly facility) of Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W). The Workshop particularly emphasized procedures for physical inventory-taking at critical assemblies and item facilities, with associated supporting techniques and methods. By learning these topics and applying the methods and experience at their own institutes, the Russian scientists and engineers will be able to determine and verify nuclear material inventories based on sound procedures, including measurements. This will constitute a significant enhancement to MPC&A at the Russian institutes.