Implementing a Nuclear Materials Safety Management Program in the US and Russia

Abstract

The United States and Russia are dismantling nuclear weapons and generating hundreds of tons of excess plutonium and high enriched uranium fissile nuclear materials that require disposition. The US Department of Energy and the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (MINATOM) organizations are planning and implementing safe, secure storage and disposition operations for these materials in numerous facilities. This provides a new opportunity for technical exchanges between Russian and Western scientists that can establish an integrated and improved common safety culture for handling these materials. The development and use of personal relationships and joint projects among Russian and Western participants involved in fissile nuclear materials safety management contribute to improving nuclear materials nonproliferation and to making a safer world. Technical exchanges and workshops are being used to systematically identify opportunities in the nuclear fissile materials facilities to improve and ensure the safety of workers, the public, and the environment.