Wikipedia
Material protection, control, and accounting is the process of protecting nuclear assets such as nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons. The MPC&A Program is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's nonproliferation program, under the National Nuclear Security Administration. This program seeks to improve the security of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons material through upgrades to material protection and material control and accounting at nuclear sites in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Since the program's inception as part of the Department of Defense's Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, it has improved the security on thousands of tons of weapons grade nuclear material in the FSU.
The Issue
After the Cold War, there were large quantities of enriched uranium and plutonium-239 left in Russia. The problem was that due to the weakened economy of the Soviet Union, Russia's stockpile of nuclear waste and weaponry were left for free picking by anyone, which included possible terrorists. This security threat is a direct possibility of the fall of the FSU (Former Soviet Union) because security implemented before the fall also fell with it. To help solve this and alleviate risk, U.S. Congress passed the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act in 1991. This act would give the President the authority to work with the FSU to help dispose of and protect their nuclear devices. The part of this program involving providing security upgrades for the FSU's nuclear weapon materials would come to be known as MPC&A.
As Russia and the United States left the Cold War and began to see the threat of their weaponry, they both made agreements to help dispose and protect the Russians' armaments. The MPC&A was not the only agreement to settle the protection of these weapons. The U.S provided assistance worth up to two billion in American currency through the START program. This assistance was to help Russia transport their nuclear materials back to safe locations in Russia. The MPC&A came into place to help protect those nuclear materials from outside sources. This cooperation of Russia and the U.S allowed some ease between the nations and restore a level of security against nuclear threat.
In an effort to improve the security of nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union, then Acting Secretary of Energy Charles Curtis and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy and co-chairman of Atomic Energy Policy Viktor Mikhailov, one of the commission's eight committees signed a joint statement on February 7; that reaffirms each side's commitment to the bilateral nuclear materials protection, control and accounting (MPC&A) program and includes the Instrument Research Institute (Lytkarino) in the program beginning this year. As a clear indication of the progress that has been made thus far, the sides noted that 15 Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (MIN ATOM) facilities were incorporated into the MPC&A program during the previous three sessions of the Gore Chernomyrdin Commission. Six additional MINATOM facilities also engage in MPC&A related activities through a cooperative program between each side's nuclear laboratories, known as the "lab to lab" program. A total of 44 sites in the former Soviet Union participate in the MPC&A program.
As Doyle points out, there were many challenges that the MPC&A program faced during the 1990s. Some of which included an unexpected abundance of nuclear waste that needed to be handled and disposed of in Russia during the late 90's. It also had difficulties with gaining enough financial support for nuclear facilities, while facing imposed taxes. This is also at the same time that they are working on this system between Russia, which is coming out of the Soviet Union. As a result of this, there’s trouble with the MPC&A and moving the Russians away from its earlier habits in nuclear security. Following these difficulties, Doyle also points out that the MPC&A program received $137 million in 1998 as aid to remedy the situations.