WINS for security cooperation

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Support is gathering for a new organisation aiming to improve security at nuclear facilities using some of the same methods already proven to have improved nuclear operations.

 

The World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) is to be an independent not-for-profit foundation headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It will facilitate cooperation between organisations responsible for security at nuclear facilities worldwide, both private and government owned.

 

WINS has come as a constructive security initiative spurred by the events of 11 September 2001 and has grown from an idea expressed by Charles Curtis, president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) at a 2005 Institute for Nuclear Materials Management conference. Those two bodies decided to develop the WINS concept, with strong support from the US Department of Energy and consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

 

Roger Howsley of the WINS coordination team told World Nuclear News that security professionals around the world have a "strong common interest not to wait until a security event" before they begin to cooperate.

 

He was referring to the establishment of the USA's Institute of Nuclear Power Operators (Inpo) in response to the Three Mile Island accident, and the World Association of Nuclear Operators (Wano) after the Chernobyl disaster. Both those bodies allow experts from different organsiations to meet and visit each other's facilities in a spirit of open dialogue on best practice. The strictly confidential interactions can sometimes be painful, but the results have been simultaneous increases in safety and power production as well as profitability at nuclear power plants worldwide. The underlying drive for the groups is the responsibility nuclear operators have to each other because 'an accident anywhere is an accident everywhere'.

 

Howsley said that security operators have a good basis for common knowledge. They have the same kinds of materials to protect, the same types of buildings, and the same needs - principally to deny unauthorised access. They could also benefit from professional development opportunities for staff, which currently lag behind those available in the nuclear safety area.

 

According to Howsley, who spent 27 years with BNFL, latterly as its security director, nuclear security professionals are sometimes restricted in communicating and do not enjoy the same opportunities that other nuclear professionals do. He expects WINS to provide "mechanisms to bring people together" and to "facilitate workshops and coordinate activities proposed by its members and agreed by its board." Membership could grow widely to include military, police and government organisations. Howsley told WNN there can be great gains in sharing knowledge of management strategies and modes of operation without discussing specifics of security infrastructure.

 

Howsley said he is currently involved with efforts to gain support for WINS worldwide with a view to beginning work later this year and noted the intention of NTI to provide WINS with a foundation grant.