Certified in MSUC.
Certification of equipment from leading manufacturers in the OIT system (equipment, products and technologies for nuclear installations, radiation sources and storage facilities) is becoming a noticeable trend in the TSB market. For example, this year the German company GEUTEBRÜCK became the holder of such a certificate. Moreover, colleagues from Germany certified almost the entire line of their products.
Obtaining the certificate opens up new prospects for GEUTEBRÜCK: participation in projects on physical protection of nuclear facilities in cooperation with leading companies with extensive experience in the nuclear field, creation of new modern complexes for protecting facilities based on innovative IP solutions. Certification of GEUTEBRÜCK equipment was carried out at the Federal State Institution «Inter-Industry Special Training Center» (ISTC), Obninsk.
Our story is about it.
Obninsk is the first science city in Russia, and, probably, there is a certain pattern in the fact that it is here that the very ISTC (Inter-Industry Special Training Center) is located, the successful activities of which the President of the Russian Federation spoke about at the Nuclear Security Summit in 2010 in Washington (USA).
The Federal State Institution «Inter-Industry Specialized Training Center» (FSI MSUTS) was created in 1993 in pursuance of the order of the Government of the Russian Federation on the basis of a special department of the Central Institute for Advanced Training of Managers and Specialists of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR. Currently, the Center is part of the State Corporation for Atomic Energy «Rosatom».
What has been done in the Center in this relatively short period is, of course, better to see with your own eyes, because, believe me, it is impressive. Unfortunately, not everyone has this opportunity, so we ask readers for a few minutes of attention.
The MSUC has several areas of activity. The main ones are comprehensive training and advanced training of executives and specialists in various areas of ensuring the safety of enterprises, organizations and institutions of the country, and certification of equipment in the OIT system.
Yuri BARABANOV, Director of the Federal State Institution MSUC:
You know, numbers sometimes speak louder than words. So, over the years of the Center's activity, more than 16 thousand people have been trained and have improved their qualifications. These are mainly specialists from the Russian nuclear industry.
I cannot help but note that the inclusion of the Center in the Rosatom State Corporation is a very successful and far-sighted management decision. Firstly, we have the opportunity to promptly resolve any issues related to the functioning and further development of the Center. Secondly, such structural subordination fully meets the specifics of our activities. After all, we do not teach students or even postgraduates. Our teachers work with people who perform very responsible work.
A powerful impetus to the establishment and development of the Center was given by the signing of an intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States on accounting and control of the physical protection of nuclear facilities. Within the framework of this agreement, the American side assumed obligations, the spectrum of which is quite broad: financing, technical assistance, exchange of experience, work of advisers.
The Center has organically entered this program. Today, it can be said without exaggeration that the MSTC is one of the leading structures for training and advanced training of specialists in the physical protection of nuclear facilities in the industry. Cooperation with American partners is very constructive. With their participation, we managed to create a modern training center with an excellent educational and material base, all the necessary educational and methodological materials, an updated fund of regulatory documents. We have a rich arsenal of technical training tools, our own training grounds (one of them was created in cooperation with the IAEA and is intended for training specialists from abroad), where dozens of samples of the most modern security equipment operate in conditions as close to real ones as possible.
The Center's specialists are regular participants in analytical studies conducted at facilities and in the development of regulatory documents in the field of physical protection.
Who do we train? First of all, these are executives and specialists in the field of physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities. The Center trains and improves the qualifications of heads and employees of security services and physical protection units of nuclear facilities of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom. We conduct a substantive study of the problems of organizing and ensuring physical protection, designing and operating complexes of engineering and technical means, analyzing and inspecting physical protection systems.
Specialists from other industries, departments, companies of various forms of ownership also study with us — it is no coincidence that the Center has the status of an inter-industry center.
A separate and very important topic is the certification activities of the Center.
Evgeny TARANOV, Head of the OS TSO MSUC:
In addition to the training departments, the FGU MSUC has a testing and certification service — «The Certification Body for Technical Security Means for Physical Protection Systems» (OS TSO MSUC). Structurally, this department is a certification center that performs the functional tasks of a certification body, expert and testing centers. Each of them is an accredited participant in the certification system of the OIT for a group of homogeneous products — technical means and physical protection systems (TMPS) of nuclear facilities.
The area of responsibility of the OS TSO MSUC includes the organization and implementation of work on a comprehensive analysis of the set of documents submitted with the application, testing, production inspections, and, if the results of the assessment of the compliance of the TSPF with the requirements of the regulatory documents of the OIT system are positive, making a decision on issuing a certificate.
In order to carry out certification activities, the Federal State Institution MSUC is licensed by Rostekhnadzor for the right to carry out work on the examination of design, engineering, and technological documentation, and also has the infrastructure and resources necessary to carry out the entire range of work on certification and testing of TSPF.
In 2010, the experimental and testing base was modernized, including the expansion of the production areas of the laboratories and the technical territory of the test site, the latest testing and measuring equipment was put into operation, expanding the capabilities for conducting electromagnetic, functional, climatic and mechanical tests, and the test site was technologically prepared for conducting full-scale tests of a wide range of TSPF used or developed for nuclear facilities. The laboratories of the testing center of the FGU MSUC conduct certification tests confirming the compliance of the TSPF parameters in conditions as close as possible to the operating conditions at nuclear facilities, including the operating conditions of TSPF in the event of failures and malfunctions. This is the main feature of the work of testing laboratories accredited in the OIT system and their difference from the work of laboratories in other certification systems.
The test laboratories and testing grounds have five workplaces for climatic and mechanical tests, ten for functional tests. Fifteen workplaces are intended for electromagnetic tests. On the basis of the testing ground of the FGU MSUTs, not only certification and other control tests are regularly carried out, but also research tests of the TSPF. The testing center of the FGU MSUTs is widely used by developers of TSPF regardless of departmental subordination. The most important task of the FGU MSUTs test division in the coming 2011 is the implementation of plans to automate the processes of collecting and processing test data, as well as managing test procedures.
The assessment of compliance of the TSPF for nuclear facilities at the FGU MSUTs is carried out by qualified experts and testers who have special knowledge and skills in their areas of activity, as well as the corresponding personal qualities. Information and organizational-methodical support is available for carrying out work within the framework of the examination of the materials submitted by the applicant. Only the fund of regulatory documents of the FGU MSUTs includes about 1,500 titles of updated publications.
There are always up to ten applications in progress for certification of TSPF as a group of homogeneous products. Our clients are leading Russian and foreign manufacturers of the security equipment market. For example, not long ago we completed certification of equipment from the German company GEUTEBRÜCK.
It was a very large and difficult job, but it was a pleasure to deal with colleagues from GEUTEBRÜCK. Technical documentation for the components and the television complex as a whole is Russified and complies with the requirements of Russian regulatory documents. The company presented comprehensive statistics on the results of equipment operation from dozens of objects of use, all the necessary documents from other departments. This helped in compiling the certification basis and assessing the main reliability indicators of the TSPF, subject to mandatory confirmation during certification in the OIT system. At the testing stage, the functionality of the declared equipment was fully checked. Tests for electromagnetic compatibility and the impact of external factors were also carried out.
The inspection of the production of GEUTEBRÜCK equipment confirmed that it is delivered to the consumer assembled, undergoing a multi-stage production control covering all technological operations. This guarantees the high quality of the certified equipment and its readiness for commissioning at the sites of use.
The experience of the Federal State Institution MSUC in conducting certification and testing shows that certification of equipment in the OIT system does not allow penetration of nuclear facilities by TSPF that do not meet the mandatory requirements established in regulatory documents.
Konstantin ARBUZOV, GEUTEBRÜCK company:
We have certified almost the entire line of GEUTEBRÜCK equipment supplied to Russia, and these are dozens of groups of products with different functionality as part of the STN. Having a certificate is an important competitive advantage, provides new broad opportunities for expanding product sales, and helps stimulate new developments. Moreover, for customers, not only necessarily associated with the nuclear industry, the OIT certificate indicates the highest reliability and wide functionality of the devices, which is an important factor when choosing security equipment.
The certification body's requirements were indeed very strict at all stages: from the preparation of application documents to field testing of equipment. You must agree that this is a justified and even necessary measure — after all, we are talking about the safety of nuclear facilities. It is all the more gratifying that GEUTEBRÜCK successfully passed this serious test in all respects.
To a large extent, this was facilitated by the fact that the GEUTEBRÄCK plant in Windhagen carries out the system assembly of video security systems, their integration with other systems, configuration and functionality testing. As a rule, the final acceptance of the system by the customer is also carried out there, where the last technical details are specified, including the future security algorithm, and any identified inaccuracies and design errors are corrected. As a result, a fully tested, operational system that meets all customer requirements is delivered to the restricted area. This eliminates any discrepancy with the design characteristics, and does not require lengthy configuration or emergency finishing of the system in field conditions at the place of operation. Our equipment operates reliably and efficiently at hundreds of sites in dozens of countries around the world, from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana to the branch of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in the Far North of Russia. GEUTEBRÜCK system solutions are traditionally installed at Rosatom State Corporation facilities as part of the implementation of international nuclear safety programs of the EU and the USA. In close cooperation with Russian companies FSUE Start (Nikiret), PO Tensor, ZAO Algont, ZAO Company Security, etc., GEUTEBRÜCK equipment is installed both at Atomenergoprom enterprises and at Rosatom industry science facilities and the nuclear weapons complex.
In short, there is no doubt that certification of equipment in the OIT system will allow GEUTEBRÜCK to significantly strengthen its position on the Russian market and give new impetus to the development of the company's activities in Russia.