|
 |
|
Safeguards and SecurityPolestar's team of seasoned security experts provides a broad range of physical security services to the government sector, including:  > Deactivation and Decommissioning
For more information on any of the services below, please contact:
Deactivation and Decommissioning Optimization of S&S Practices Polestar personnel are leaders in the areas of optimization of safeguards and security practices during deactivation and decommissioning efforts. Personnel have worked extensively in the optimization of S&S practices at Oak Ridge Y-12 and ETTP, Hanford PFP, PUREX and FFTF, Mound, Fernald, West Valley, Rocky Flats, Idaho, and Savannah River F Area. Areas of efficiencies and optimization have included work in Security Area Reconfiguration, material control and surveillance, transportation, MAA and Security Area deactivation, procedure development, termination of safeguards, access control, escorts, and deviations to policy to name just a few. Polestar Applied Technology utilizes senior safeguards and security staff to review safeguards and security programs and provide advice and assistance to Site Managers regarding cost-effective and efficient approaches to implementation of security policy during deactivation and decommissioning activities. Polestar personnel are extremely knowledgeable in the DOE Orders and requirements and have successfully implemented optimization initiatives to the DOE Orders/Manuals 470.1, Safeguards and Security Program, DOE M 474.1-1A, Manual for Materials Control and Accountability, and DOE M 473.1-1, Physical Protection Program Manual.
Design Basis Threat Implementation We provide advice and technical assistance to the Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) Owner/Operators Senior Management in quantitatively modeling the overall protection effectiveness for the site security system using the Analytic System and Software for Evaluating Safeguards and Security (ASSESS). ASSESS was originally developed for, and has been applied extensively to Department of Energy (DOE) facilities for evaluation of nuclear material protection systems since the 1980s. ASSESS is also well-suited to commercial plant security systems and provides a unique capability for quantitatively measuring security system protection effectiveness. Polestar has successfully applied ASSESS to several Exelon plants to validate and verify plant security system upgrade strategy and concept – As part of the management decision process as to what basic changes are necessary to meet the new DBT, the evaluation of overall protection effectiveness would be useful to assess the relative merits of possible changes to the plant security system. Polestar has experience with a 4 phase process for applying ASSESS in this manner including:
Additionally, the system can be employed to optimize plant security system upgrade design and cost estimate as a cost-benefit analysis tool, build case for NRC Licensing, and for management - The evaluation of overall protection effectiveness can be useful as a means to justify and present to management the decision process that was used and the final decision on the security concept to be implemented. The tool can be utilized as a “Verification and Confirmation” of newly implemented protection measures as another resource efficient instrument for validation of effectiveness, prior to the conduct of a force-on-force exercises.
Polestar applies both Limited Scope Performance Testing (LSPT) and total system testing techniques. The most appropriate method for predicting actual performance of security systems is to observe and evaluate performance in a staged event that duplicates, under controlled conditions, a situation that would not otherwise be observable. The LSPT approach focuses on specific protection elements (detection systems, access or entry control, alarm monitoring, etc.). A brief test plan is developed and a number of similar tests are conducted to obtain an adequate sample of test results. Subject matter experts are used and ratings assigned based on the pass and failure rate. Implementation requirements are also assessed to determine compliance. Final overall ratings are assigned and results documented in a test report.
Safeguards and Security (S&S) Inspections and Surveys Polestar assists clients in the conduct of initial, periodic, special, and termination safeguards and security surveys. The Polestar Security Team consists of knowledgeable security professionals that are experienced in all S&S topical areas, capable of functioning as S&S Survey Team/Topical Area Leads. The team offers a requirement based and analytical approach to the survey process that can effectively evaluate compliance and performance based aspects of the entire S&S program.
Vulnerability Assessments/Path Analysis Polestar applies an integrated vulnerability assessment process to determine the protection effectiveness of a given protection system, using a team approach. The process combines the planning and technical analysis functions into a format that promotes the orderly development of assessment assumptions, threat characterization and levels, target identification and consequences of target loss, global as well as individual adversary path analysis, validation testing and finally a justifiable measure of protection effectiveness with cost-effective strategy recommendations. For sites with potential nuclear material roll-up issues polestar emphasizes the team approach to adequately determine material attractiveness and accessibility to potential adversaries, followed by path analysis to determine task time, detection effectiveness and response requirements. The design basis threat is assessed to determine applicability to facility assets and appropriately identified and used to determine protection effectiveness, which is the basis for accepting risk or taking further mitigating actions. Corrective Action Planning
Polestar assists clients in the development and verification of corrective action plans designed to address and correct identified S&S findings. These development aspects include a root cause analysis, risk assessment, and cost benefit analysis designed to optimize S&S operations. The team offers a requirement based and analytical approach to the verification that serves as the basis for all closure actions. Nuclear Materials Control and Accountability
Polestar assists clients in adherence to NMC&A requirements and identifying responsibilities associated with an effective nuclear material control and accountability program. This includes, but is not limited to, program development, optimization of material control and surveillance, staff augmentation, and knowledge of the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System. Polestar NMC&A expertise provides technical advice and assistance in the integration of Safeguards and Security requirements and optimization related to Material Control and Accountability to include material surveillance and control efficiencies during facility deactivation and decommissioning. Our team has reconfigured the inventory of Special Nuclear Material (SNM) and broaden application of existing procedures to allow reductions of security while maintaining appropriate level of security. Completely reviewed nuclear material inventory holdings to determine which materials were excess, and provided recommended disposition methods and/or potential receiver sites for discrete items. Additionally, technical staff personnel are skilled at negotiating shipper/receiver agreements with other DOE facilities to include Westinghouse Savannah River Company, Westinghouse Hanford, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory-West. Technical Staff develop and implement training programs for nuclear material custodians and tamper indicating device application. Staff can also assist in the conversion of database used for tracking accountable nuclear materials, from an "in-house" mainframe application to standardized DOE LANMAS (Local Area Network Material Accounting System) running on a PC-based Windows NT platform. |
|
