In August, the TEES Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) worked with faculty members from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) to conduct the second Advanced Nuclear Security Workshop on the campus of IIT-K in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The workshop, which was sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Partnership for Nuclear Security (PNS) with logistics coordination by CRDF Global, included lectures on nuclear security, nuclear security culture, insider threats, and insider psychology. Participants also completed a tabletop exercise in nuclear security and three radiation-detection-related exercises. For most of the participants, this was their first formal training in nuclear security.
NSSPI Director Dr. Sunil Chirayath and NSSPI Research Engineer Claudio Gariazzo lectured on nuclear security culture, target identification, adversary path analysis, and insider threat at the workshop. Other subject matter experts were drawn from IIT-K, Sandia National Laboratories, the Indian Department of Atomic Energy, and Nucleonix India Private Limited, one of the main radiation detection manufacturing companies in India. Participants in the workshop included 60 students and 10 faculty members from eight different universities in India: IIT-K; the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay; the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun; Mody University, Rajasthan; Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhi Nagar; and Amity University, Noida-Delhi.
This workshop is part of an initiative by PNS to increase nuclear security awareness among Indian academics and develop nuclear security curricula for Indian Universities. IIT-K and Amity University are already teaching nuclear security as part of their nuclear engineering curriculum. PDPU, Mody University, and UPES will begin incorporating nuclear security education into their program during this academic year.
