SAFEGUARDS CAPACITY BUILDING - PowerPoint Presentation

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SAFEGUARDS CAPACITY BUILDINGARGENTINE EXPERIENCE

STELLA MARIS BONET DURAN,

LEONARDO PARDO

Nuclear Regulatory

Authority

Argentina

RUTH SMITH

National Nuclear Security Administration

U.S

. Department of Energy

Presentation OutlineBackground InformationCooperation Areas

The

Nuclear Regulatory Authority and The Department of Energy Cooperation.

New Applications for spent fuel containment and surveillanceTechnical Training for safeguards specialistRegional Workshop on domestic inspectionsConclusions

To provide a

quick

overview of the cooperation actions

carried out, the resulting impact in the Argentinean safeguards community, and how this long-term endeavor strengthens safeguards application in the country and in the region

Background InformationThe goals of this regulatory system are:To provide an appropriate standard of protection for people against harmful effects of ionizing

radiation

To

maintain a reasonable degree of radiological and nuclear safety for nuclear activities performed in ArgentinaTo ensure that nuclear activities are not developed with unauthorized purposes by the law and regulations resulting there from, as well as by the international agreements and the non-proliferation policies adopted by Argentina.To

prevent from performing intentional actions, which may either have severe radiological consequences or lead to the unauthorized removal of nuclear material or other materials or equipment subject to control.

Nuclear

Regulatory

Authority

of Argentina

Nuclear Regulatory Authority is an Argentinean institution with the mandate

to establish, develop and enforce a regulatory system applicable to all nuclear activities

carried out in

Argentina

Background InformationNuclear Regulatory Authority of Argentina

From the nuclear safeguards perspective there is a

well-defined State System of Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials

(SSAC)Common System of Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials applied by ABACC. This system has been established through an Agreement between Argentine Republic and the Federative Republic of Brazil for the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy, which is fundamentally based in a crossed inspection scheme.

Nuclear Regulatory Authority and The Department of Energy Generic Action Sheet StructureIntroduction

Background

Scope

of WorkProgram ManagementFinancial ManagementDuration Signatures (in duplicate)

Cooperation

Agreement

between the

United States Department of Energy (DOE)

and the

Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Argentina (ARN)

“Concerning Research and Development in

Nuclear Material Control, Accountancy, Verification, Physical Protection, and Advanced Containment and Surveillance Technologies for International Safeguards Applications

”, dated on April 18th,

1994

Cooperation AreasThis presentation will focus in the last four yearsCapacity

Building

Cooperation for the purpose of this presentation can be divided in two main areas:Capacity building with national impact

Cooperation

areas with

regional

impac

t

Cooperation AreasMain objective: To involve all the national safeguards community in an interactive process of evaluation of

containment and surveillance technologies applied to a particular project.

Workshop

New Applications for spent fuel containment and surveillanceOperatorsDesigners

Regulators

Regional

safeguards

organizations

This training helps

to create a

synergic safeguards perspective

for an specific project –

Safeguards by Design

Cooperation AreasARN identifies some areas of cooperation based on Argentinean safeguards personnel capacity building

needs

:

Technical Training for safeguards specialistNon-destructive Assays technologies, based on gamma and neutron radiationStatistical

analysis for safeguards applications

Cooperation AreasTechnical Training for safeguards specialistNon-destructive Assays technologies, based on gamma and neutron radiation

Three

Argentinean safeguards inspectors attend a two weeks program in

Los Alamos National Lab at US.

Cooperation AreasTechnical Training for safeguards specialist

Statistical

analysis for safeguards

applicationsCustomized training course. Four days course named “Statistical Concepts for Safeguards”

was carried out in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Subject covered:

Basic

statistical concepts review.

Statistics

concepts applied on measurements technics in nuclear safeguards and nuclear material sampling methodologies. Uncertainty estimation.

Sampling

plans developments.

Material

balance evaluation

.

Chemical analysts

S

afeguards inspectors

Operators

Statistical evaluators

Cooperation AreasRegional Workshop on domestic inspections

Domestic safeguards

inspections play and important role in

facilitating international inspections performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Another purpose is to identify and resolve safeguards issues before, during and after international inspections take place. A national regulator with complete knowledge about all nuclear activities

taking place within the State’s borders ultimately promotes the effectiveness and efficiency

of international inspections.

Thus

,

it is important for States

operating nuclear facilities and managing nuclear material inventories to ensure their national regulators are able

to plan, coordinate, conduct, and document a safeguards inspection at a nuclear facility.

Cooperation AreasRegional Workshop on domestic inspectionsThis activity can be considered as

cooperation with regional

impact.

A practical exercise on a real facility, Research Reactor 3 located at Ezeiza Atomic Center, was performed. A five-day workshop on domestic safeguards inspections was carried out for

countries in South and North America

operating nuclear fuel cycle facilities.

ConclusionsThe agreement between the Argentine Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will celebrate its 25th anniversary next .

It is a

fundamental tool

for the Argentinean safeguards regulator capacity building process. Experts and professionals from both organizations exchanged knowledge and technical experiences. The involvement of all safeguards community, operators and designers during training and courses has shown to be an excellent opportunity to discuss about

safeguards.

The

Regional Workshop on Domestics Safeguards Inspection, jointly coordinated between DOE and ARN, is a good way to demonstrate the degree of maturity of this long term endeavor, shifting the focus from a bilateral cooperation scheme to a partnership with

regional scope on safeguards related expertise

.

Gracias por su tiempo(Thank you for your time)

Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear