Publications

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) at Texas A&M University are working with Middle East regional partners to set up a nuclear energy safety, safeguards, and security educational institute in the Gulf region. SNL and NSSPI, partnered with the Khalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research (KUSTAR), with suppot from its key nuclear stakeholders, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), plan to jointly establish the institute in Abu Dhabi. The Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII) will be a KUSTAR-associated, credit-granting regional education program providing both classroom instruction and hands-on experience. The ultimate objective is for GNEII to be autonomous - regionally funded and staffed with personnel capable of teaching all GNEII courses five years after its inauguration. This is a strategic effort to indigenize a responsible nuclear energy culture - a culture shaped by an integrated understanding of nuclear safety, safeguards and security - in regional nuclear energy programs. GNEII also promotes international interests in developing a nuclear energy security and safety culture, increases collaboration between the nuclear energy security and safety communities, and helps to enhance global standards for nuclear energy technology in the Middle East.

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) at Texas A&M University are working with Middle East regional partners to set up a nuclear energy safety, safeguards, and security educational institute in the Gulf region. SNL and NSSPI, partnered with the Khalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research (KUSTAR), with suppot from its key nuclear stakeholders, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), plan to jointly establish the institute in Abu Dhabi. The Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII) will be a KUSTAR-associated, credit-granting regional education program providing both classroom instruction and hands-on experience. The ultimate objective is for GNEII to be autonomous - regionally funded and staffed with personnel capable of teaching all GNEII courses five years after its inauguration. This is a strategic effort to indigenize a responsible nuclear energy culture - a culture shaped by an integrated understanding of nuclear safety, safeguards and security - in regional nuclear energy programs. GNEII also promotes international interests in developing a nuclear energy security and safety culture, increases collaboration between the nuclear energy security and safety communities, and helps to enhance global standards for nuclear energy technology in the Middle East.

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The Navruz Project is a cooperative, transboundary, river monitoring project involving rivers and institutions in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and facilitated by Sandia National Laboratories in the U.S. The Navruz Project focuses on waterborne radionuclides and metals because of their importance to public health and nuclear materials proliferation concerns in the region. The Project also collects data on basic water quality parameters. Data obtained in this project are shared among all participating countries and the public through a world-wide web site (http://www.cmc.sandia.org/Central/centralasia.html), and are available for use in further studies and in regional transboundary water resource management efforts. This report includes graphs showing selected data from the Fall 2000 and Spring 2001 sampling seasons. These data include all parameters grouped into six regions, including main rivers and some tributaries in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river systems. This report also assembles all data (in tabular form) generated by the project from Fall 2000 through Fall 2001. This report comes as the second part of a planned three-part reporting process. The first report is the Sampling and Analysis Plan and Operational Manual, SAND 2002-0484. This is the second report.

The transboundary nature of water resources demands a transboundary approach to their monitoring and management. However, transboundary water projects raise a challenging set of problems related to communication issues, and standardization of sampling, analysis and data management methods. This manual addresses those challenges and provides the information and guidance needed to perform the Navruz Project, a cooperative, transboundary, river monitoring project involving rivers and institutions in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan facilitated by Sandia National Laboratories in the U.S. The Navruz Project focuses on waterborne radionuclides and metals because of their importance to public health and nuclear materials proliferation concerns in the region. This manual provides guidelines for participants on sample and data collection, field equipment operations and procedures, sample handling, laboratory analysis, and data management. Also included are descriptions of rivers, sampling sites and parameters on which data are collected. Data obtained in this project are shared among all participating countries and the public through an internet web site, and are available for use in further studies and in regional transboundary water resource management efforts. Overall, the project addresses three main goals: to help increase capabilities in Central Asian nations for sustainable water resources management; to provide a scientific basis for supporting nuclear transparency and non-proliferation in the region; and to help reduce the threat of conflict in Central Asia over water resources, proliferation concerns, or other factors.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has hundreds of facilities where radioactive materials have been used or are being used, including firing ranges, low-level radioactive waste disposal areas, and areas where past activities have resulted in environmental contamination. Affected sites range in size from a few acres to square miles. Impact to the DoD comes through military base closure and release to the public. It is important that radioactive contaminants are remediated to levels that result in acceptable risk to the public. Remediation requires characterization studies, e.g., sampling and surveys, to define the affected areas, removal actions, and final confirmatory sampling and surveys. Characterization of surface contamination concentrations has historically been performed using extensive soil sampling programs in conjunction with surface radiation surveys conducted with hand-held radiation monitoring equipment. Sampling is required within the suspect affected area and a large buffer area. Surface soil contaminant characterization using soil sampling and hand held monitoring are costly, time consuming, and result in long delays between submission of samples for analysis and obtaining of final results. This project took an existing, proven radiation survey technology that has had limited exposure and improved its capabilities by documenting correlation factors for various detector/radionuclide geometries that commonly occur in field surveys. With this tool, one can perform characterization and final release surveys much more quickly than is currently possible, and have detection limits that are as good as or better than current technology. This paper will discuss the capabilities of a large area plastic scintillation detector used in conjunction with a global positioning system (GPS) to improve site characterization, remediation, and final clearance surveys of the radioactively contaminated site. Survey results can rapidly identify areas that require remediation as well as guide surgical removal of contaminated soil that is above remediation guidelines. Post-remediation surveys can document that final radiological site conditions are within the remedial action limits.