SHARAPOVO, Moscow Region. Nov 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry personnel servicing and guarding the ministry's nuclear facilities is under rigid psychological control all the time, deputy head for political work of the ministry's 84th inter-branch center Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Mezhuyev said on Thursday.
"The system of training specialists for work at nuclear facilities includes a set of measures aimed at checking the personnel's reliability, which rules out any psychological surprises," Mezhuyev told Interfax-Military News Agency.
An expert handling nuclear munitions goes through gradual psychological screening, first when he enters a college, then when he gets additional training in the 84th center and once again when he gets clearance for special activity at nuclear facilities, Mezhuyev said.
Reliability check includes obligatory mental testing, he went on. The 84th center has a psychological laboratory fitted with Polygraph devices, commonly known as lie detectors. The equipment made on the basis of computer technologies and advanced psychological methods was supplied by U.S. companies. Funds for the supplies were provided by the U.S. Congress in the framework of the Threat Reduction Program. The price of an equipment set exceeds USD100,000.
"Russian military psychologists mastered the lie detectors with the help of American teachers. Americans praised the training level of Russian colleagues," Mezhuyev said.
Psychologists need a serviceman's consent to subject him to lie detector examination. "Any serviceman has the right to reject the examination, but rejection is also a result," the expert said.
The law on state secrets authorizes such an examination, and the serviceman who is unwilling to go through it is usually offered a different post not related to special activity. "Thus, his right to choose an occupation is not infringed," Mezhuyev stressed.
The 84th center also has a drug laboratory that regularly tests the personnel chosen at random to make sure there are no drugs in their bodies.
"A military psychologist decides whether a serviceman can be cleared for special activity after assessing his situational psychological condition with the help of certain methods. A man that has gone through a stress is subjected to a mental rehabilitation course," the officer said.
"In general, the system of working with the personnel together with material and moral stimulation measures ensures 100 percent reliability of the so-called human factor," he concluded.