Background
Within the framework of the collaboration between the European Commission (EC) and the Russian Federation, the EC was contributing to the international support to the Russian Federation to transform and reinforce the State System of Accountancy and Control of nuclear materials (SSAC).
For political and financial reasons, a significant part of the NMAC instrumentation with appropriate performance characteristics had to be produced in Russia. To this end, the cooperation with the EU industry, in specific excellence areas, was expected to be beneficial.
The EC launched a comprehensive Tacis programme aimed at enabling the Russian industry to produce the instrumentation necessary for the Nuclear Material Accountancy and Control (NMAC) system in the Russian Federation, by contributing to the creation of the logistics, technical know-how, infrastructures and technical conditions, and identifying the potential for joint manufacturing/ collaboration with the EU industry.
At the time of the project implementation, the supervisory management of the major part of the nuclear facilities came under the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation (MINATOM). In this context MINATOM assigned to the All Russia Research Institute of Automatics (Russian VNIIA), the role of monitoring the suitability and quality of instrumentation procured for NMA&C in the Russian Federation.
Contract 24798 was the first phase of the above mentioned comprehensive programme. One of its objectives was to prepare the Technical Specifications for the procurement of gamma spectrometry equipment suitable for nuclear materials accountancy and control in the Russian Federation. The equipment was then tendered for procurement by the EC under TACIS funding.

Objective
The intention of the project was to procure two types of instrumentation.
The first type of instrument was a hand-held general purpose, low resolution gamma spectrometer instrument suitable for measuring U enrichment during activities of verification of accountancy in facilities concerned with fuel fabrication for power reactors. For this purpose it was necessary that the instrument would be capable of routinely making large numbers of measurements of auditing quality within the period of physical inventory taking and/or physical inventory verification.
The second type of instrument was a high resolution instrument for use with Ge detectors for measuring Pu isotopic composition in storage areas of Pu bearing material. This instrument would be used both for accountancy and for internal auditing. The towns at which the storage facilities were located were Zhelesnogorsk in the East Siberian region, Seversk in the Central Siberian region and Ozersk in the Ural region.
The equipment was divided into two lots:
Lot 1: Low resolution gamma spectrometry equipment
This lot comprised 20 portable, hand held systems, each consisting of a detector and spectrometer hardware along with batteries and software. Each instrument should have a packing container suitable for transport and providing basic shock resistance as well as suitable documentation.
Lot 2: High resolution gamma spectrometry equipment
This lot comprised:
a) One system consisting of:
• three detectors (one Ge, one CdTe or CZT, one NaI),
• one gamma spectrometer (HV, pulse amplification, pulse analyser)
• one computer
• one software system with spectrum analysis package
b) Nine systems (without detector) each consisting of:
• one gamma spectrometer (HV, pulse amplification, pulse analyser)
• one computer
• one software system with spectrum analysis package
Each instrument system should be provided with a packing container suitable for transport and providing basic shock resistance. The systems must be accompanied by suitable documentation.
Lot 2 included the delivery of three of the high resolution instrumentation systems in point b) above to each of three Russian facilities, as well as its installation at the facility and the basic training of the End Users' personnel at the facility. The three Russian facilities were located in the towns of Zhelesnogorsk in the East Siberian region, Seversk in the Central Siberian region and Ozersk in the Ural region. As the nine systems in are to be supplied without a detector, the installation and training activity would be carried out using Ge coaxial detectors already available at the facilities.
Basic training had to be provided on:
- how to assemble the instrument system,
- the physical principles of the measurement and normal conditions of use,
- operation of the instrument for measurement purposes,
- interpretation of the results,
- basic level of maintenance.
The high resolution system of point a) above had to be delivered to the All Russia Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA) in Moscow.
The equipment was contracted through competitive tendering. The call for tender was launched during January 2001 and the tender evaluation was completed in May 2001. Contract negotiations followed and finally led to the signature of two contracts, one for each lot. However, the contract for lot 2 was later cancelled for formal contractual reasons and was not retendered.
This contract was for Lot 1.

Results
The contract was signed 18 June 2002. The equipment was delivered and the Provisional Acceptance Certificate was signed on 28 February 2005. The Final Acceptance Certificate was signed on 10 May 2006.