Development of a Personal Computer-Based State System of Accounting For/And Control of Nuclear Materials
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Report No. IAEA - R - 4169-F TITLE Development of a personal computer-based state system of accounting for/and control of nuclear materials. FINAL REPORT FOR THE PERIOD 1985-07-01 1986-06-30 AUTHOR(S) Dr. Markov, A. INSTITUTE Committee on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Dept, of Nuclear Safety Computer Centre of the Dept. of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards Sofia, Bulgaria INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY DATE September 1986 L_ . i :i ; V BULGARIAN COMMITTEE ON USE OF ATOMIC ENERGY FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES Department of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards Research Contract No 4169/RB Development of a Personal Computer Based State System of Accounting -for and Control of Nuclear Materials CSSAC) Final Report Time period covered: 01.07.85 - 3O.O9.B6 Chief Scientific Investigator: Dr. A. Markov Sofia, September 1986 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. Beneral 3 II. Description of research carried out 6 III. Results obtained 15 IV. Conclusions drown 17 I. General 1. Introduction This document, is prepared as a -final report on Research Project NO. 4.169/RP "State System o-f Accounting -for and Control of nuclear materials <SSAC)" by the Department of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, Committee on Use of Atomic Energy -for Peaceful Purposes, Bulgaria. It covers the fifteen months progress on the project, namely from July 1985 to September 19S6. During the stated period of time the major efforts were directed towards the fallowing items: - Definition of Requirements; - Establishment of Hardware Configuration; - Acquisition of Software; - Creation of Algorithm and Programming; - Test of the System with Control Examples; - Creation of a SSAC System Documentation. A brief introduction to these items is given below. ?.. Definition of Requirements The current reporting obligations as pertaining to the INFCIRC/153 from State Authority to the IAEA is based on th» harclcopy format. As a consequence the data have to b» manually re-entered at the JAHA into the ISIS data base, followed by add i t. i (.mal time-consuming error checks as well as quality control. A PC based SSAC not only may improve reporting, but may as well contribute to: - Saving of time and additional manual efforts; - Reduction of transcription errors; - Allow the State Authority to use it for its own national accounting system. In future the SSAC may be expanded in different ways to suit the particular needs of any State Authority reporting under the same requirements. Now, in this Project, a base level is aimed at an efficient interface between the State level and the Agency with an IBM PC, taken as a suitable computer for the needs of a Member State with small-scale nuclear activity. The results could be offered cost—free to any Member States as an inexpensive solution to meet their reporting requirements. 2.1 Design specification The computer system, which was determined to accomplish the given requirements i & reposed to be an IBM PC in the frame work of this project. The project is expected to answer questions about: - Minimum amount of operative and external memory; - Abilities for short and long term data storage; - Physical data carrier for data transport -from the State to the IAEA, which will meet the needs of both sides involved; - Data format on the physical carrier; - Data security. These questions are in direct connection with the planned implementation. The IBM PC will be used to concentrate the storage and retrieval of data. Reports will be computer—compiled with minimum of manual interference using the database created. II. Description of research carried out 1. Introduction The Personal Computer Based State System of Accounting for and Conl.ru] of Nuclear Materials (PC SSAC) , developed under Research Contract No 4169/RB aims at a computerized data processing at State level to enter and save safeguards reports, and to record these reports on a physical carrier - diskette, in order to be transmitted to the IAEA for further direct processing in the Department of Safeguards ISIS. The system is built on an IBM PC. Within the framework of the national SSAC, the system to be developed is a component of the full SSAC, i.e. the State level SSAC as described in STR-166. During the reporting period a progress was made in the following project areas: - Definition of Requirements; - Establishment of Hardware Configuration; - Acquisition of Software; - Introduction with the Personal Computer Technique and Software; - Configuration and Software Selection; - Programming; - Test and Adjustment o-f the System; Conf iguring u-f Lhe System; Creating of a Documentation with the following Chapters: a) i'iii i i.le to Applications ~ a topic in which are discussed the probable application -fields o-f SSftC and the methods and ways to achieve the Safeguards goals. b) Operator's Guide - application where it is shown how to maintain the system and how to use its functional capabilities.This guide is oriented directly to a particular user in an understandable -form. c) Programmer's Guide - gives a description of the system on source module level. It is addressed to professionals, who should deal with the system adaptation to some other possible conditions and requirements. 2. Definition of Requirements The Personal Computer Based SSAC aims at computerization of the State level Safeguards functions. The system has to be applicable to any Member State with small-scale nuclear activity, which is currently reporting on a hardcopy formats and whose amount of data to be reported does not warrant a large computer system. This will enable the Safeguards Information Treatment Division to reduce manual efforts for entering data into the ISIS data base. data base. At the same time it is expected to decrease the •frequency o-f transcr i pLicm errors. An additional benefit of a PC based system is its much lower cost as compared to that of large computer centers. To this contributes the portability of the PC based systems which may be of a particular interest to the developing countries. Since the project aims at the State Level SSAC only (as described in STR—166) it must be regarded as a major component o-f the SSAC. 2.1 System Structure and Interconnections between Components The system is physically located at the State Authority. Other components o-f the -full SSAC may be located at the Facility. The input to the system consists of data which the -facilities supply to the State Authority to generate the reports to the IAEA. The output from the system includes the following reportss — Physical Inventory Lists; — Material Balance Reports; — Inventory Change Reports. — Concise Notes The data is stored in the system either on diskettes or on hard disk (see Safeguards Report Editor,State Level SSAC 1.0 - "User Manual"). The output is -formatted and copied onto a physical carrier suitable -for mailing to the IAEA. The currently -foreseen magnetic medium is a 5 1/4 diskette. The format of the records complies with the current Code 10. At the same time a printout may be generated for filing. During the trial a second copy may be mailed to the IAEA along with the diskettes. From a functional point of view the system is built of the following components: — Input processing; - Output processing. The input data are received from the facilities, as it is required by the regulations established. The data is currently typed-in on the PC keyboard with a full set of control software the Safeguards Report Editor, State Level SSAC 1.0. Each file record corresponds to one report line. Using the tool of default header and entry line it is possible to decrease the quantity of the input information. In fact the system works with files in sequential access. 10 The system is alike to a te>:t editor with output on a magnetic disk and printer. A special part of the Editor's program converts the file structure from a sequential to random accuse. and prepares the diskette for transmission to IAEA. 2.2 External Constraints Due to the specifics of the computer technique, some constraints are imposed on the input to and the output from the system. The input forms are filled by a responsible officer at the State Authority, using the data from the facilities, where the it originates. The forms suit the computer input data entry requirements. This is not an additional difficulty since the forms used are as recommended by Code 10 and in STR—165. The output files are in ASCII format (PC DOS input files) on the physical carrier (diskette) so that they can be read into the IAEA Information System by means of standard PC DOS. The physical carrier proposed is a 5 1/4 inch 360 Kb diskette, double sided, double density. It must be pre-formatted on the IBM PC with the standard formatting procedure. 11 2.3 Data life-span (retention period) in the System Under current agreement INFCIRC/153 it is necessary for the State Authority to maintain the safeguards data -five years aiter thu country's responsibility for the nuclear materials expired. I li.?nc:Ks the data life-span in the system depends on the type o-f tlie f ai: i. I i ti <?s un dur the jurisdiction of the State Authority For a NPS with F'WR type reactors, as is the case in Bulgaria,the life-span is estimated at 15 years. The preliminary data volume in the system after 15 years of operation amounts is estimated to 12 Mb approximately. 3. Design Specifications 3.1 Flow Evaluation During the reporting period more then 120 reports with at least 10000 entry lines were sent to the IAEA. Minor errors were detected- only, e.g.