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Volume 3, Number 2 Technical Division Reports
International Safeguards Technical Division The International Safeguards Technical Division (ISD) has over the past year worked to serve the international safeguards community through INMM involvement with the continuing important developments in international safeguards and nonproliferation at the INMM annual meeting in July 2004 and at the ESARDA Symposium in London in May 2005. 2004 Annual INMM Meeting. The 45th annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., in July 2004, included 10 sessions on international safeguards topics. The topical focus chosen by ISD for the 2004 annual meeting was "information in strengthened safeguards and under the Additional Protocol." Three sessions presented a full coverage of the important and broadening role that information is playing in international safeguards and the infrastructure to support this. ISD was very pleased with the excellent representation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with the audience interest and participation. ISD Meeting at 2004 Annual INMM Meeting. The well-attended ISD meeting held in conjunction with the 2004 annual meeting addressed three topics of current interest. Recent international safeguards developments and reviews were introduced by John Carlson, director general, Australian Safeguards and Nonproliferation Office. Jill Cooley, director, Division of Concepts and Planning, IAEA introduced improving detectability for safeguards. And Catherine Monzel of the Division of Personnel of IAEA talked about employment opportunities at the IAEA. Attendees appreciated the opportunity to get up to date on international safeguards issues and to exchange views. Cecil Sonnier Memorial Discussion Topic. At the 2004 INMM Annual Meeting and at the ISD Meeting, the passing of Cecil Sonnier in June 2004 was noted with regret. Cecil was the founder of the International Safeguards Division and led it for two decades. At the ISD meeting, a memorial activity was launched, in which a group of interested division members are revisiting the concepts of “transparency and openness” in international safeguards, a favorite topic of Cecil Sonnier in the mid-1990s. Good progress has been made and an interim report will be presented at the 2005 INMM Annual Meeting. Distribution of Summer 2004 JNMM Issue. As a contribution to the review of the NPT in 2005, copies of the special Summer 2004 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Material Management (JNMM) on the theme "The Additional Protocol and the Road to Integrated Safeguards" were distributed with a transmittal letter to government embassies and missions in Vienna in early February 2005 by ISD, with assistance from the INMM Vienna Chapter. The special issue, with a forward by the IAEA, contains articles that present the important progress made by countries and organizations around the world in preparing for and implementing additional protocols and in preparing for and beginning the implementation of integrated safeguards. ISD meeting at 2005 ESARDA Symposium, May 2005. Thanks to arrangements made by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) hosts, an ISD meeting was held on May 9 in conjunction with the 2005 ESARDA Symposium in London. The lively ISD meeting took place the evening before the Symposium began and was attended by 27 persons. A congenial no-host dinner followed. The first discussion topic was the “Multilateral approaches for the civilian nuclear fuel cycle” report, recently completed by an expert group set up by the IAEA. The topic was introduced by the Chair and by Eckhard Haas, Division of Concepts and Planning, IAEA. Following that, Dirk Schriefer, Director, Division of Information Treatment, IAEA, reported recent developments at the IAEA; and Peter Chare, EC-TREN, discussed recent developments in safeguards within the European Commission and Community. 46th Annual INMM Meeting. For the INMM Meeting in Phoenix, in July 2005, the large submittal of papers on international safeguards topics allowed us to plan a full set of technical sessions, including a joint session with each of the Nonproliferation and Arms Control, Material Control and Accountability and Waste Management divisions. Sessions addressed policy, implementation of the additional protocol and integrated safeguards, strengthening safeguards, the Rokkasho challenge, environmental sampling and information analysis, unattended and remote monitoring, reactors and spent fuel, instrumentation and measurements, training and technical cooperation. 2005 INMM/ESARDA Workshop. The fifth in a series of joint Workshops organized by INMM and the European Safeguards R&D Association (ESARDA) is well advanced in preparations. The workshop theme is "Changing the Safeguards Culture: Broader Perspectives and Challenges." It will be held in Santa Fe, N.M., Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2005. ISD is cooperating with the INMM Southwest Chapter on the local arrangements for the meeting. The main themes of the workshop, to be addressed by three working groups, are "further evolution of safeguards;" "strengthening detection capability for safeguards;" and "safeguards in a broader policy perspective." A special topic is also being planned on “education/university interaction.” The workshop format will provide ample time for discussion among the participants. We hope that members of the Institute and the international safeguards community have been able to benefit from the ISD activities in the 2004-2005 year and will have the opportunity to participate in INMM meetings and ISD activities during the coming year. Jim Larrimore, Chair Materials Control and Accounting Technical Division The 2004 MC&A Technical Division meeting was held at the 45th Annual Meeting of the INMM. Thirty-five people from throughout the DOE/NNSA Complex attended the annual division meeting in Orlando. Topics discussed included an N-15 report delivered by the committee chair, which included a request for support on several subcommittees, a review of the previous day’s Executive Committee meeting, review of the division charter and division strategic plan, preview of the INMM Annual Meeting highlighting MC & A interests, a 2004 workshops report on Safeguards & Security Technologies and Methodologies for the 21st Century and Global Best Practices in MC&A, and a 2005 workshop discussion led by Pam Dawson on Safeguards & Security System Effectiveness. The 45th Annual Meeting of the INMM included 15 MC&A paper and poster sessions. Ninety-seven MC&A papers were scheduled, 18 were withdrawn, most of those due to Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel being recalled to the laboratory. The since-retired Norbert Ensslin did an outstanding job in presenting numerous Los Alamos papers to keep the number withdrawn from being even higher. Fifteen division members responded to a request from the chair for a volunteer for a new INMM Proliferation Resistance Working Group. The chair performed the division’s annual review of the division charter. No changes were necessary this year. The chair also reviewed the new Operations Manual. The 2005 MC&A-Physical Protection Workshop, “Safeguards & Security System Effectiveness” was held in Augusta, Ga. The Southeast Chapter, with assistance from the Central Chapter, put on an excellent event. Attendee (including two non-U.S. attendees) interaction was excellent throughout the workshop. The format of a few papers to introduce the next topic between breakout sessions worked very well. MC&A and physical protection professionals listened to and learned from each other for the entire 2 ½ days. The most straightforward result from the workshop is the crystallization of the idea that incorporating material control elements into an effectiveness algorithm will be much easier than incorporating material accounting elements. The largest benefit of the workshop was to introduce this topic to the MC&A and physical protection communities to get them talking about measuring a total system effectiveness. An update on the progress of developing an algorithm to measure system effectiveness was promised to be delivered at the annual division meeting in Phoenix. The chair forwarded the N-15 November report to the division and requested volunteers. Three members volunteered. The NNSA MC&A Program Manager encouraged NNSA Site MC&A organizations to support the work of the N-15 Committee. The 46th Annual Meeting of the INMM featured MC&A papers and posters presented in 12 sessions. Some of these sessions were combined sessions with the International Safeguards, Physical Protection and Waste Management technical divisions. Strategic Plan
The chair made a new round of comments on the MC&A presentation for the Web site. Unfortunately the people that volunteered to help with the presentation also supported the workshop planning. Ed Sadowski, Chair Nonproliferation and Arms Control Technical Division The major Nonproliferation and Arms Control Division event this year was a workshop held on March 15, 2005, in Washington. The title of the workshop was Criminalizing WMD Proliferation: the Role of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. Participants included the chair of the United Nations 1540 Committee, Ambassador Mihnea Motoc of Romania, a number of U.S. and international government representatives and other experts from NGOs and academia. A summary and analysis was published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials Management (JNMM). I presented a paper at the annual meeting on the topic as well. At the INMM Annual Meeting this summer, in Phoenix we varied from the usual format for our annual division meeting. The first hour of the meeting we combined with the International Safeguards Division, where we had a discussion on the implications of the results of the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference that took place in New York in May 2005. For the remainder of the meeting, the divisions separated, so that we could each complete our individual division agendas. During the Annual meeting we had a very full agenda of sessions. This year we have two special sessions, a combined session with the International Safeguards Division, a combined session with Packaging and Transportation Division and seven other regular sessions. Les Fishbone of Brookhaven National Laboratory has taken over the position of associate editor of the JNMM, representing our division. He replaces Jim Lemley, who we thank for his service. Lemley is now a member-at-large of the INMM Executive Committee. As always, there are opportunities for volunteers to support the work of the division. These opportunities run the gamut from the mundane to the very intellectually stimulating and challenging. In the mundane category, we are now responsible for managing projectors for presentations at all of our sessions, so volunteers will be needed to ensure that the process of loading presentations onto computers goes smoothly. At the intellectually stimulating level we always need help in the planning and conduct of workshops. Please talk to me or to one of the other officers of the Division about how you can contribute. As a reminder, these officers are Larry Satkowiak, John Smoot, Mike Vannoni, Paul Rexroth and Wayne Ruhter. I look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting in Phoenix this summer.Steve Mladineo, Chair Packaging and Transportation Technical Division The Packaging and Transportation Division has begun planning for PATRAM ’07. Meetings of the Planning Committee were held in October and February to select a site for the conference. INMM, through the Sherwood Group, is key in this process. The Sherwood Group is coordinating all the RFPs that go out to the various cities, and is providing expert guidance into what cities and venues make for a successful conference. The Planning Committee is made up of representatives from the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. INMM chairs the Planning Committee and provides the overall support to initiate and conduct the planning to ensure a successful conference. The Packaging and Transportation Division has conducted seminars this past year at the University of New Mexico (November) and at the University of Missouri-Columbia (March). These seminars provided an overview of nuclear materials transport safety through regulations, design, analysis and testing. Further, the presentations showed how consequences from sabotage are passively mitigated through very stringent design criteria promulgated in the U.S. regulations. The relationship with the University of Missouri started at the 45th Annual Meeting with Kathleen Trauth, a professor at the university. Trauth agreed to be the vice chair of the Packaging and Transportation Division. One of her goals is to work with the engineering students at the university to give them a broader perspective of engineering opportunities.Ken Sorenson, Chair Physical Protection Technical Division This has really been an exciting year for our division, particularly for the new kid on the block. The Physical Protection and MC&A divisions collaborated with the Central and Southeast chapters on a Security Effectiveness Workshop in April 2005. Workgroups of those attending provided excellent input into the efforts of Sandia National Laboratories to further the development of a quantifiable tool for assessing MC&A elements of an overall protection system. All the presentations and subsequent discussions revolved around a quote from Gen. George Patton that became a workshop theme: "If we're all thinking alike, somebody's not thinking." Contributions from the Physical Protection Division included presentations on the use of process simulation modeling to support insider analyses, comprehensive performance testing programs to enhance and improve safeguards and security effectiveness, and innovative use of simple measures to reduce risk at nuclear facilities. The Physical Protection Division sponsored a two-day workshop on "Developing Physical Protection Specialists" July 7-8, 2005. This workshop featured a process and methodology used interactively by the participants to develop a thorough understanding of what professional, educational and training elements are required to develop persons in the physical protection field. Our technical division is taking this step to stress the importance of human resources in a very technically oriented discipline. At our Physical Protection Division Annual Meeting on Sunday, July 10, 2005, we discussed the timely topic of safeguards and physical protection integration (including some of the latest technologies being tested), conducted a roundtable discussion on the convergence of physical protection and information technology systems and generated ideas for next spring's joint MC&A and Physical Protection Division workshop on performance testing for continued protection effectiveness. L. David Lambert, Chair Waste Management Technical Division The Waste Management Technical Division (WMD) held a meeting on Jan. 25, 2005, at Loew’s L’Enfant Plaza Hotel to discuss the invitation of speakers to submit abstracts for the 46th INMM Annual Meeting. The WMD held its 22nd Spent Fuel Management Seminar at Loew’s L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. on January 11-13, 2005. Approximately 150 attendees were present including representatives from Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom. Thirty-five invited speakers made presentation in five topic areas -- Overview of Spent Fuel Management Policies and Programs, Spent Fuel Storage Technologies, Transportation of Spent Fuel and High Level Waste, Spent Fuel Storage Projects and Technology Development, and Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposal. In addition, the seminar received good coverage by the industry press, and one publication devoted most of its edition to the results of the seminar. The WMD participated in the Technical Program Committee selection of papers for the 46th Annual Meeting in March 2005. The next meeting of the WMD will be held in conjunction with the 46th INMM Annual Meeting of the INMM in Phoenix, Ariz., in July 2005. E. R. Johnson, Chair |