Developing standard performance testing procedures for material control and accounting components at a site

The condition of a nuclear material control and accountability system (MC and A) and its individual components, as with any system combining technical elements and documentation, may be characterized through an aggregate of values for the various parameters that determine the system's ability to perform. The MC and A system's status may be functioning effectively, marginally or not functioning based on a summary of the values of the individual parameters. This work included a review of the following subsystems, MC and A and Detecting Material Losses, and their respective elements for the material control and accountability system: (a) Elements of the MC and A Subsystem - Information subsystem (Accountancy/Inventory), Measurement subsystem, Nuclear Material Access subsystem, including tamper-indicating device (TID) program, and Automated Information-gathering subsystem; (b) Elements for Detecting Nuclear Material Loses Subsystem - Inventory Differences, Shipper/receiver Differences, Confirmatory Measurements and differences with accounting data, and TID or Seal Violations. In order to detect the absence or loss of nuclear material there must be appropriate interactions among the elements and their respective subsystems from the list above. Additionally this work includes a review of regulatory requirements for the MC and A system component characteristics and criteria that support the evaluation of the performance of the listed components. The listed components had performance testing algorithms and procedures developed that took into consideration the regulatory criteria. The developed MC and A performance-testing procedures were the basis for a Guide for MC and A Performance Testing at the material balance areas (MBAs) of State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (SSC RF-IPPE).