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

The work described here is part of an effort called the Nuclear Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC ampersand 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 ampersand A systems at Russian nuclear Facilities. This paper describes that portion of the MPC ampersand 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 ampersand A milestone was met at VNIITF when the MPC ampersand A improvements were commissioned at the Pulse Research Reactor Facility in May of this year.