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Title: Nuclear Material Control and Accountability System Effectiveness Tool (MSET)

Abstract

A nuclear material control and accountability (MC&A) system effectiveness tool (MSET) has been developed in the United States for use in evaluating material protection, control, and accountability (MPC&A) systems in nuclear facilities. The project was commissioned by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of International Material Protection and Cooperation. MSET was developed by personnel with experience spanning more than six decades in both the U.S. and international nuclear programs and with experience in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in the nuclear power industry. MSET offers significant potential benefits for improving nuclear safeguards and security in any nation with a nuclear program. MSET provides a design basis for developing an MC&A system at a nuclear facility that functions to protect against insider theft or diversion of nuclear materials. MSET analyzes the system and identifies several risk importance factors that show where sustainability is essential for optimal performance and where performance degradation has the greatest impact on total system risk. MSET contains five major components: (1) A functional model that shows how to design, build, implement, and operate a robust nuclear MC&A system (2) A fault tree of the operating MC&A system that adapts PRA methodology to analyze system effectiveness and give amore » relative risk of failure assessment of the system (3) A questionnaire used to document the facility's current MPC&A system (provides data to evaluate the quality of the system and the level of performance of each basic task performed throughout the material balance area [MBA]) (4) A formal process of applying expert judgment to convert the facility questionnaire data into numeric values representing the performance level of each basic event for use in the fault tree risk assessment calculations (5) PRA software that performs the fault tree risk assessment calculations and produces risk importance factor reports on the facility's MC&A (software widely used in the aerospace, chemical, and nuclear power industries) MSET was peer reviewed in 2007 and validated in 2008 by benchmark testing at the Idaho National Laboratory in the United States. The MSET documents were translated into Russian and provided to Rosatom in July of 2008, and MSET is currently being evaluated for potential application in Russian Nuclear Facilities.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
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  1. ORNL
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1016608
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 10th Central Asia MC&A Conference, Astana, Kazakhstan, 20110516, 20110516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; BENCHMARKS; DESIGN; FUNCTIONAL MODELS; MATERIAL BALANCE AREA; NUCLEAR FACILITIES; NUCLEAR POWER; PERFORMANCE; PERSONNEL; RISK ASSESSMENT; SAFEGUARDS; SECURITY; TESTING; THEFT

Citation Formats

Powell, Danny H, Elwood Jr, Robert H, Roche, Charles T, Campbell, Billy J, Hammond, Glenn A, Meppen, Bruce W, and Brown, Richard F. Nuclear Material Control and Accountability System Effectiveness Tool (MSET). United States: N. p., 2011. Web.
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Powell, Danny H, Elwood Jr, Robert H, Roche, Charles T, Campbell, Billy J, Hammond, Glenn A, Meppen, Bruce W, & Brown, Richard F. Nuclear Material Control and Accountability System Effectiveness Tool (MSET). United States.
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Powell, Danny H, Elwood Jr, Robert H, Roche, Charles T, Campbell, Billy J, Hammond, Glenn A, Meppen, Bruce W, and Brown, Richard F. Sat . "Nuclear Material Control and Accountability System Effectiveness Tool (MSET)". United States. doi:.
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@article{osti_1016608,
title = {Nuclear Material Control and Accountability System Effectiveness Tool (MSET)},
author = {Powell, Danny H and Elwood Jr, Robert H and Roche, Charles T and Campbell, Billy J and Hammond, Glenn A and Meppen, Bruce W and Brown, Richard F},
abstractNote = {A nuclear material control and accountability (MC&A) system effectiveness tool (MSET) has been developed in the United States for use in evaluating material protection, control, and accountability (MPC&A) systems in nuclear facilities. The project was commissioned by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of International Material Protection and Cooperation. MSET was developed by personnel with experience spanning more than six decades in both the U.S. and international nuclear programs and with experience in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in the nuclear power industry. MSET offers significant potential benefits for improving nuclear safeguards and security in any nation with a nuclear program. MSET provides a design basis for developing an MC&A system at a nuclear facility that functions to protect against insider theft or diversion of nuclear materials. MSET analyzes the system and identifies several risk importance factors that show where sustainability is essential for optimal performance and where performance degradation has the greatest impact on total system risk. MSET contains five major components: (1) A functional model that shows how to design, build, implement, and operate a robust nuclear MC&A system (2) A fault tree of the operating MC&A system that adapts PRA methodology to analyze system effectiveness and give a relative risk of failure assessment of the system (3) A questionnaire used to document the facility's current MPC&A system (provides data to evaluate the quality of the system and the level of performance of each basic task performed throughout the material balance area [MBA]) (4) A formal process of applying expert judgment to convert the facility questionnaire data into numeric values representing the performance level of each basic event for use in the fault tree risk assessment calculations (5) PRA software that performs the fault tree risk assessment calculations and produces risk importance factor reports on the facility's MC&A (software widely used in the aerospace, chemical, and nuclear power industries) MSET was peer reviewed in 2007 and validated in 2008 by benchmark testing at the Idaho National Laboratory in the United States. The MSET documents were translated into Russian and provided to Rosatom in July of 2008, and MSET is currently being evaluated for potential application in Russian Nuclear Facilities.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011},
month = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011}
}
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  • ; ; ; ...
    A Nuclear Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) Functional Model has been developed to describe MC&A systems at facilities possessing Category I or II Special Nuclear Material (SNM). Emphasis is on achieving the objectives of 144 “Fundamental Elements” in key areas ranging from categorization of nuclear material to establishment of Material Balance Areas (MBAs), controlling access, performing quality measurements of inventories and transfers, timely reporting all activities, and detecting and investigating anomalies. An MC&A System Effectiveness Tool (MSET), including probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technology for evaluating MC&A effectiveness and relative risk, has been developed to accompany the Functional Model. The functionalmore » model and MSET were introduced at the 48th annual International Nuclear Material Management (INMM) annual meeting in July, 20071,2. A survey/questionnaire is used to accumulate comprehensive data regarding the MC&A elements at a facility. Data is converted from the questionnaire to numerical values using the DELPHI method and exercises are conducted to evaluate the overall effectiveness of an MC&A system. In 2007 a peer review was conducted and a questionnaire was completed for a hypothetical facility and exercises were conducted. In the first quarter of 2008, a questionnaire was completed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and MSET exercises were conducted. The experience gained from conducting the MSET exercises at INL helped evaluate the completeness and consistency of the MC&A Functional Model, descriptions of fundamental elements of the MC&A Functional Model, relationship between the MC&A Functional Model and the MC&A PRA tool and usefulness of the MSET questionnaire data collection process.« less

  • ;
    MSET is a self-assessment or inspection tool utilizing probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methodology to calculate the system effectiveness of a nuclear facility's material control and accountability (MC&A) system. MSET analyzes the effectiveness of an MC&A system based on defined performance metrics for MC&A functions defined based on U.S. and international best practices and regulations. MSET analysis is based on performance of the entire MC&A system including defense-in-depth attributes and sensitivity analysis of changes in the system, both positive and negative. MSET analysis considers: accounting; containment; access control; surveillance capabilities of the system; and other interfaces with the physical protection systemsmore » that provide detection of an unauthorized action. MSET performs a system effectiveness calculation evaluation against a defined performance metric. MSET uses PRA techniques to analyze the MC&A system. MSET is a tool for evaluating the system effectiveness of MC&A systems during self-assessment or external inspection. MSET has been developed, tested, and benchmarked by the U.S. DOE. In collaboration with the U.S. DOE, Rosatom is developing a Russian version (MSET-R) planned for pilot implementation at select material balance areas in 2011. MSET has been shown to be an effective training and communication tool for MC&A.« less

  • The Nevada Test Site (NTS) is a test bed for implementation of the Safeguards First Principles Initiative (SFPI), a risk-based approach to Material Control & Accountability (MC&A) requirements. The Comprehensive Assessment of Safeguards Strategies (COMPASS) model is used to determine the effectiveness of MC&A systems under SFPI. Under this model, MC&A is divided into nine primary elements. Each element is divided into sub-elements. Then each sub-element is assigned two values, effectiveness and contribution, that are used to calculate the rating. Effectiveness is a measure of subelement implementation and how well it meets requirements. Contribution is a relative measure of themore » importance, and functions as a weighting factor. The COMPASS model provides the methodology for calculation of sub-element and element ratings, but not the actual criteria. Each site must develop its own criteria. For the rating to be meaningful, the effectiveness criteria must be objective and based on explicit, measurable criteria. Contribution (weights) must reflect the importance within the MC&A program. This paper details the NTS approach to system effectiveness and contribution values, and will cover the following: the basis for the ratings, an explanation of the contribution “weights,” and the objective, performance based effectiveness criteria. Finally, the evaluation process will be described.« less

  • ; ; ; ...
    For over ten years SSC RF-IPPE, together with the US DOE National Laboratories, has been working on implementing automated control and accountability methods for nuclear materials and other items. Initial efforts to use adhesive bar codes or ones printed (painted) onto metal revealed that these methods were inconvenient and lacked durability under operational conditions. For NM disk applications in critical stands, there is the additional requirement that labels not affect the neutron characteristics of the critical assembly. This is particularly true for the many stainless-steel clad disks containing highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium that are used at SSC RF-IPPEmore » for modeling nuclear power reactors. In search of an alternate method for labeling these disks, we tested several technological options, including laser marking and two-dimensional codes. As a result, the method of laser coloring was chosen in combination with Data Matrix ECC200 symbology. To implement laser marking procedures for the HEU disks and meet all the nuclear material (NM) handling standards and rules, IPPE staff, with U.S. technical and financial support, implemented an automated laser marking system; there are also specially developed procedures for NM movements during laser marking. For the laser marking station, a Zenith 10F system by Telesis Technologies (10 watt Ytterbium Fiber Laser and Merlin software) is used. The presentation includes a flowchart for the automated system and a list of specially developed procedures with comments. Among other things, approaches are discussed for human-factor considerations. To date, markings have been applied to numerous steel-clad HEU disks, and the work continues. In the future this method is expected to be applied to other MC&A items.« less

  • ;
    Recent Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives have given Departmental nuclear facilities the opportunity to take more credit for certain existing safeguards and security systems in determining operational program protection requirements. New policies and guidance are coupled with these initiatives to enhance systems performance in a cost effective and efficient manner as well as to reduce operational costs. The application of these methods and technologies support safety, the reduction of personnel radiation exposure, emergency planning, and inspections by international teams. This discussion will review guidance and policies that support advanced systems and programs to decrease lifetime operational costs without increasing risk.