Introduction

The Nuclear safeguards system comprises an extensive set of measures by which International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verifies the correctness and completeness of the declaration made by the States about their nuclear material and activities. This verification ensures that nuclear material is used only for peaceful purposes. Security of nuclear material and radioactive sources mean to prevent, detect and response to theft, sabotage, unauthorized access and illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material and other radioactive sources and their associated facilities. Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission created a division in its Head Office named “Nuclear Safeguards and Security Division (NSSD)” in 2008 to facilitate and deal with the nuclear safeguards and security related activities in the country. Presently this Division is playing major role in planning, implementing and evaluating the security activities in different nuclear and radiological facilities in the country. This Division is also designated to maintain records of all nuclear material in the country.

Objectives

• To fulfill the obligations under international treaties, agreements, protocols and conventions related to nuclear safety and radiological emergencies including safeguards and physical protection of nuclear and radioactive material and illicit trafficking.
• To maintain safeguards procedures of the State Systems of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC).
• To ensure physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive sources and associated installations in the country.
• In addition to these, this Division is responsible for taking necessary steps for being Party to international legal instrument required for the implementation of the proposed Rooppur Nuclear Power Project (RNPP) of Bangladesh. On behalf of BAEC, this Division is acting as focal point to work with different strategic partner such as IAEA, U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia (FNCA), etc. for the issues of nuclear security and physical protection of radioactive materials and associated facilities.

Major activities

• Preparation and submission of safeguards reports to IAEA for Location Outside Facility (LOF), under the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and the Protocol Additional to the Safeguards Agreement.
• Submission of safeguards reports prepared by Reactor Operation and Maintenance Unit (ROMU) to IAEA for AERE facility under the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and the Protocol Additional to the Safeguards Agreement.
• To enhance the security activities at 4 (four) installations (Reactor Operation and Maintenance Unit, Institute of Food and Radiation Biology, Central Waste Processing and Storage Facility and Institute of Radiation and Polymer Technology) of Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) and other government and private radioactive source-user installations, NSSD works with US DOE under the Basic Ordering Contract (BOC) No. 11968-AD8, Rev. 1 between BAEC and Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) of US DOE. NSSD inspects, evaluates and supervises the activities regularly.
• Contribution to country’s human resource and infrastructure development in the fields of nuclear security and safeguards through the implementation of FNCA’s Nuclear Security and Safeguards Project and in cooperation with US DOE under the BOC.
• This Division is playing major role in developing Integrated Nuclear Security Support Plan (INSSP) for Bangladesh. The INSSP, one of the nuclear security advisory services of IAEA, will identify the Bangladesh’s nuclear security needs and associated assistances; it will then consolidate this information into an integrated document to form the basis for coordinating and implementing IAEA nuclear security activities in Bangladesh.

Achievement/Success Stories

 US DOE and NSSD jointly organized a radiation security workshop in Dhaka on September 2012 focused on hands-on training with relevant radiation detection and identification equipment in locating, identifying, packaging and transporting radioactive sources especially that are orphaned or out of regulatory control. The training course was participated by representatives from the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Border Guard Bangladesh, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Detective Branch (DB), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), National Institute of Cancer Research & Hospital and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA). This training was the first of its kind in Bangladesh and contributed to develop skilled manpower to search, locate and identify radioactive sources and bring the orphaned sources (if any) under regulatory control.

 US DOE donated a good number of equipment such as Thermo RadEye, Thermo PackEye, Radiagem 2000 Survey Meter, Alpha/Beta/Gamma Probe, Alpha/Beta Probe, Telescopic Probe, Telescoping Pole for Radiagem, InSpector 1000, Portable wipe counter, Ion chamber etc. These equipment have increased BAEC’s capability to conduct a search program to locate and identify radioactive sources and keep them secure.

 After getting the proposal of the renewal of BOC No.11968-AD8, Rev. 1, from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of US DOE, this Division accomplished all the necessary activities such as reviewing the draft BOC and opinions regarding various articles of draft BOC from different ministries, maintaining correspondence with respective personnel of PNNL, etc successfully that led to the renewal of this contract on 16 August, 2011. This contract will be continued till September 30, 2016. Under this contract, security enhancement activities at different facilities that use nuclear material and radioactive sources are in progress.