US - Russian government-to-government MPC&A upgrades at the institute of theoretical and experimental physics

Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) upgrades have begun at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), a site that has significant quantities of direct-use nuclear materials. Cooperative work was initiated at this Moscow facility as a part of the U.S.-Russian Government-to-Government program to upgrade MPC&A systems. An initial site visit and assessment was conducted in September 1996 to establish communication between ITEP and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the participating U.S. national laboratories. Subsequently, the parties reached an agreement to develop two master plans for MPC&A upgrades. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) would assist in developing a plan for Material Control and Accounting (MC&A) upgrades, and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) would assist in developing a plan for Physical Protection (PP) upgrades. The MC&A plan included MC&A training, a mass measurement program, nondestructive assay instrumentation, item identification (bar coding), physical inventory taking, and a nuclear materials accounting system. The PP plan included basic PP system design training, Central Alarm Station (CAS) location and equipment upgrades, site and critical-building access control system, intrusion detection alarm assessment, and guard force communications