Physical Security Upgrades of Nuclear and Radiological Facilities

Abstract

Physical Security Upgrades of Nuclear and Radiological Facilities The issue of terrorism is of particular importance to both the Nigerian government and the nuclear regulatory agency under it, especially with regard to recent terrorist strikes worldwide of which targets government nuclear facilities with the sole aim of obtaining nuclear or radioactive materials and using them to fashion radiological dispersal devices (RDDs) for terrorist attacks. The sad trend has drawn the attention of the global community of the need for increased security measures to decrease the chances of terrorist organizations to nuclear materials. Despite the diverse aspects and applications which the subject holds, the seminar solely focused on the upgrade of physical security structures in nuclear and radiological facilities within Nigeria as implanted by the Nigerian Nuclear regulatory Authority (NNRA), IAEA and US DOS projects in Nigeria. With this, the seminar itemized the familiarity of participants with the knowledge of physical protection and security of radiological and nuclear facilities in line with existing international standards as well as providing information and guidance on how to achieve this lofty aim as a top priority. Physical protection (also called physical security) is construed to consist of a variety of measures for the protection of Radiological and Nuclear materials or facilities against sabotage, theft and diversion to which various approaches can be graded based on the significance of the materials or facilities being protected. Physical security also identifies asset within its domain which have been clearly defined as ‘anything of value (either to an organization or terrorists) to which the optimum priority of security is needed to prevent sabotage of operations. Generally, assets are classified into; people, materials and equipment, sensitive information (including equipment) and image. The people domain of assets covers human resources including employees and local population against whom criminal acts of terrorism, blackmail, and exploitation are targeted. Complacency, disaffected employees and lack of security culture can also pose a security threat to the people asset. The materials and equipment area of assets is liable to the security threats of sabotage, vandalism, theft while sensitive information assets are prone to Loss, compromise, corruption of data. Lastly the asset of image can be tarnished using bad publicity. However, some measures can be put in place to tackle the menace which sabotage of any of the above named assets poses. The use of physical security measures such as entry control (Keys, combinations, guards, and receptionist), intruder detection alarm system and CCTV surveillance system can help forestall most, if not all of these security threats. In house Seminar presented By Michael O. Kabba