International Seminar on Education and Training in Nonproliferation, Security Culture, and MPC&A in Moscow

On November 1-3, 2006, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute jointly organized an international seminar on the subject of "Education and Training in Nonproliferation, Security Culture, and MPC&A" in Moscow, Russia. The seminar brought together a wide range of educators and specialists to discuss teaching future nuclear nonproliferation specialists, safeguards analysts, and nuclear material managers. It also addressed issues of professional development for current specialists in these areas.

About 50 participants from Kazakhstan, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, the International Science and Technology Center, and the International Atomic Energy Agency attended the seminar. Their discussions included:

• national policies for educating and training nuclear industry specialists and managers;
• needs assessments for material protection, control and accounting (MPC&A) personnel;
• national and international academic and professional development programs;
• international cooperation in the development of national educational systems and individual programs in the area of MPC&A and nuclear nonproliferation;
• partnership with universities and research centers (foreign and domestic) in the development of educational and training programs in MPC&A and nuclear nonproliferation; and
• the role of security culture in nonproliferation education and training.

The seminar consisted of one plenary and four thematic sessions as well as two round-table discussions.

Participants underscored the need for greater cooperation and coordination among programs, including with international partners. Several concrete steps were proposed to foster such coordination and cooperation:

• launching a newsletter or web-based publication to share information about available educational resources and projects;
• establishing a working group or international association of teachers and instructors in the nonproliferation field; and
• creating a website with a database containing documents and instructional resources for instructors and professors.

Seminar participants also called for:

• national legislative and regulative support of educational and training activities;
• increased government financing for these programs;
• development of mechanisms for regular feedback from the nuclear industry to the educational and training system;
• better integration between academic and advanced professional training programs; and
• incorporation of nuclear security culture materials into other courses and programs.

The seminar also concluded that the need for on-going training and professional development for professors and instructors requires more attention.

Financial support for the seminar was provided by the MPC&A Education Project at the U.S. Department of Energy's MPC&A Program. In addition, the International Science and Technology Center in Moscow provided travel grants for several Russian participants in the seminar.

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