DESIGN VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS FOR SAFEGUARDS SEALING SYSTEMS

摘要

The International Atomic Energy Agency (the "Agency") engages in a rigorous equipmentauthorization process prior to deploying Safeguards instrumentation, including Safeguards sealingsystems, for world-wide use. A positive result from a vulnerability assessment is one of the manyrequirements that must be met prior to instrumentation deployment. Given the long time period inthe Safeguards instrumentation development cycle, the substantial Member State investments made,and the significant Agency staff time required, a negative result for the vulnerability assessment canresult in the loss of time, considerable additional expense, or even the failure to deploy aninstrument or sealing system at all. First suggested in 1998 by the General Physics Institute inMoscow, an approach that incorporates a design vulnerability assessment minimizes the risk ofdeployment failure by teaming a public sector vulnerability assessment team with the instrument orsealing system design team in order to identify, at the earliest possible design stage, inherentvulnerabilities. Involving the vulnerability assessors early and often in the design and developmentprocess avoids many of the problems inherent in evaluating security vulnerabilities only after thedesign is finalized. The disadvantages include increased costs and time to deployment. Animproved pressure-sensitive adhesive label seal, called the "VOID-3 seal" was developed for theAgency using this design vulnerability assessment process.