Measurement quality control
If an organization has good instrumentation at its disposal and its own metrological service, it does not necessarily mean that the NM measurements it makes are of a high quality. Practice has shown that good measurement quality necessitates a special quality control process and appropriate record keeping. These may be summed up as a measurement quality control program. Such a program provides for steps to determine the capabilities of measurement instrumentation in terms of attainable accuracy and to develop procedures for keeping its performance within tolerance limits.
The General Rules for Accounting and Control call for setting up such a measurement quality control program that will allow using measurement results in the A&C system. Such programs are being introduced and operate already at many organizations and companies in Russia.
A principle central to measurement quality control is that of continuous checking for errors caused by instrumentation and measurements techniques. Such continuity is made possible, first of all, by regular (weekly, daily or several times a day) calibration of equipment against various reference specimens: mass specimens containing uranium of known enrichment, plutonium specimens of known isotopic composition, etc. Thus, a measurement quality control program includes, as its essential components, certified NM specimens to be used for calibration and verification of secondary standards, and measurement control methods.
Measurements against reference specimens allow:
∙estimating errors in individual measurements;
∙calculating random and systematic components of measurement errors and, if possible, correcting the latter;
∙calculating the control limits of instrumentation performance; if measurement results exceed a certain emergency limit, the instrument is taken out of operation.
∙In order to speed up introduction of measurement quality control programs on nuclear sites, it is recommended:
∙to use programs requiring a minimum extent of measurement verification;
∙to set tolerances at a level of practical necessity;
∙to integrate measurement control procedures into measurement procedures.
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Accounting procedures
Special attention is paid in the General Rules to the main accounting procedures including NM measurements, i.e., to NM transfer and physical inventory-taking. Their proper fulfillment (following the Rules, among other things) can largely ensure successful operation of an A&C system.
The requirements of the General Rules apply also to the A&C information system, including accounting and reporting documents. These requirements unify the information formats and facilitate transition to computerized information support of A&C, which is known to enhance hugely the A&C capabilities.
In subsequent chapters of this book, we shall repeatedly refer to the General Rules with the aim of more detailed discussion of various requirements placed on nuclear material accounting and control systems.
A regulatory framework is of great importance to physical protection of nuclear materials. It embraces documents of various levels.
1.International level:
∙INFCIRC /225/ rev. 4, The Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear facilities (IAEA);
∙INFCIRC /274/ rev. 2, Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (IAEA).
2.Russian documents of the federal level:
Rules for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Installations and Nuclear Material Storage Facilities, approved by Governmental Decree No. 264, of 07.03.97.
3.Russian documents of the departmental and interdepartmental levels (a package of documents).
4.Russian documents of the site level (a package of documents). Physical protection of nuclear installations is provided by operating
organizations and specially authorized governmental agencies, following the requirements laid down in the Rules for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Installations and Nuclear Material Storage Facilities. These rules are based on the RF legislation for safety management in nuclear activities and were drawn up with regard to the international obligations of Russia and to the IAEA recommendations for physical protection of nuclear materials, nuclear installations and nuclear material storage facilities. The Rules apply to nuclear sites on the whole territory of the RF and are binding upon all legal entities involved in nuclear activities irrespective of the forms of ownership, funding sources and departmental affiliation, as well as upon
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the federal executive bodies responsible for coordination and supervision of nuclear activities.
This document regulates the relations arising in the process of safety management during nuclear activities. In accordance with these Rules, no nuclear activities may take place unless physical protection is provided for nuclear materials, nuclear installations and nuclear material storage facilities.
The subjects covered in this document include: the functions of federal executive bodies and physical protection organizations; the key requirements for organization of physical protection during transportation of nuclear materials and nuclear installations; state supervision of and departmental control over provision of physical protection; the procedure for bringing facts of unauthorized actions to the notice of appropriate authorities. It is a most important objective today to make the key ideas of those documents clear to each employee of a nuclear enterprise so that they become an effective and reliable link in the system of special management of nuclear materials.
The issues of physical protection on nuclear sites were comprehensively addressed in Minatom Order No. 550 of 01.09.2001 on Approval of the General Requirements for Physical Protection Systems on Nuclear Sites of Russian Minatom. This departmental regulatory document defines the order of arrangements made for physical protection of nuclear materials, nuclear installations and nuclear material storage facilities within the Minatom framework, and sets forth the basic functional requirements for physical protection systems and their structural elements.
The General Requirements were developed in line with the Federal Law on the Use of Atomic Energy and other federal laws clarifying the issues of site safety and security; with the Rules for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Installations and Nuclear Material Storage Facilities, approved by Governmental Decree No. 264 of 07.03.97; with the Regulation on the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, approved by Governmental Decree No. 392 of 05.04.97. Besides, this document was developed with due regard to the international obligations arising from the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, and other regulatory acts dealing with physical protection.
The General Requirements for physical protection of nuclear sites establish:
∙ the order of organizing and supporting physical protection activities at the departmental level;
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∙the directions of work to develop the regulatory framework for physical protection at the departmental level;
∙the list of the main regulatory documents on physical protection at the site level;
∙the goals, objectives and principles of PPS arrangement;
∙the criteria for and the order of categorization of nuclear sites and objects of physical protection;
∙the procedure for analyzing the vulnerability of nuclear sites;
∙the PPS structure;
∙the functional requirements for structural elements of PPS equipment and utilities;
∙the general requirements for the equipment of areas guarded by a PPS;
∙the requirements for building and upgrading a physical protection system;
∙the requirements for planning and management of physical protection activities;
∙the requirements for operation and maintenance of PPS equipment and utilities;
∙the requirements for physical protection of NM during transportation;
∙the requirements for organization and conduct of exercises to try out and practice interactions within the PPS framework;
∙the requirements for the PPS personnel, their training and retraining.
The General Requirements for physical protection of nuclear sites specify the provisions of the Rules for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Installations and Nuclear Material Storage Facilities, as applied to management of physical protection activities within the Minatom framework, the physical protection systems of nuclear sites and their structural elements.
The site-specific requirements for PPSs and their structural elements are based on the General Rules for physical protection of nuclear sites, taking into consideration the results of site vulnerability analyses, the category and operating features of specific sites, and the PPS efficiency assessments. These requirements serve as a basis for PPS development, operation and upgrading.
The requirements for quantitative characteristics of PPS equipment and utilities are set in regulatory standardization documents of the federal or departmental level.
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The General Requirements are meant for use by the management and personnel of nuclear sites, as well as by other departmental organizations involved in the following activities:
∙organization of work on physical protection;
∙development and upgrading of a PPS;
∙support of PPS operation;
∙control of PPS compliance with the official requirements.
The requirements of this document apply to physical protection of nuclear sites belonging to Minatom of Russia, as well as to physical protection of nuclear materials and articles containing them during transportation. The requirements and provisions of this document are used as a basis for developing new or updating the current regulatory documentation on physical protection of the departmental and site levels.
Regulation No. 3 of the Federal Agency for Supervision of Nuclear and Radiation Safety (Gosatomnadzor), dated 16.01.2002 deals with approval and enactment of the federal regulations and rules in the field of nuclear energy uses, referred to as the Rules for Physical Protection of Radiation Sources, Storage Facilities, and Radioactive Material.
This regulatory document was prepared on the basis of Federal Laws on the Use of Atomic Energy and on the Radiation Safety of Population; on the General Rules for Radiation Safety; Rules for Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Installations, and Nuclear Material Storage Facilities, as well as on the IAEA Recommendations for Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities (INFCIRC\225\Rev/4).
The Regulation explains: the requirements for physical protection of radiation sources, storage facilities, and radioactive material; the procedure for determining the composition of and requirements for the system of physical protection of radiation sources, storage facilities, and radioactive material; the procedure for reporting unauthorized actions involving radiation sources (RS), storage facilities (SF), and radioactive material (RM).
The Regulation addresses: the organizational aspects of physical protection; the documents dealing with organization and provision of physical protection for RS, SF, and RM; the requirements for utilities and equipment of a PPS; the requirements for actions of the guard forces; the RS, SF and RM classification according to their potential hazards.
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