Design and evaluation of the physical protection system of a nuclear facility

The present work presents an application of a risk management based approach to definition of requirements, design and evaluation of physical protection systems for nuclear facilities. Such approach considers probabilistic parameters of the threat, equipment, systems and response forces used to prevent, dissuade and detain malicious acts against the integrity of facilities and the nuclear materials inside them. Nowadays, in the context of Brazilian nuclear facilities licensing, a purely prescriptive approach is adopted, which despite having advantages such as simplified inspections and homogeneous regulatory requisites amid different fuel cycle facility types, does not consider evolution, dynamism and capacities of external or internal threats to facilities and to Brazilian Nuclear Program itself, neither provides metrics to evaluate system performance facing such threats. In order to preserve actual plans and systems confidentiality, a facility hypothetical model is created, including a research reactor and a waste storage facility. The methodology use made possible identifying and correcting vulnerabilities through project modifications, which would not be possible via regulation-compliance verification, which is the current practice adopted. From the results obtained in this study, it is possible to conclude that the adoption of a performance-based methodology represents a remarkable evolution in terms of physical protection systems. (author)