The only official copy of this file is the one online in SBMS. Before using a printed copy, verify that it is the most current version by checking the document effective date on the BNL SBMS website.
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Point of Contact: Visits and Assignments of Foreign Nationals
To establish procedures for unclassified visits and assignments of foreign nationals.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Laboratory support an active program of unclassified visits and assignments by foreign nationals to BNL as part of a program for international cooperation in science. This includes the exchange of scientific and technical information and personnel, as long as the visits and assignments are consistent with or related to DOE and Laboratory missions in basic science, energy, national security, the environment, or the protection of public health and safety.
This instruction pertains to all visits and assignments by foreign nationals to BNL except for the following: activities open to the public such as meetings, tours, concerts, lectures, and, when advertised as publicly open, conferences and seminars; delivery persons; and subcontractors in the construction trades and providers of equipment maintenance/repair services who are not involved in the technical/scientific work of the site. Follow the procedure in Section VI.C for activities that have not traditionally been "open to the public" but should receive consideration for this status.
ITD and organization system administrators have established procedures to process account requests and control access to unclassified BNL computers.
The Laboratory Director is responsible for the Foreign Visits and Assignments program and is the approval authority. The Laboratory Director has delegated approval authority to the Laboratory Deputy Director for Operations.
The Assistant Laboratory Director for Facilities and Operations exercises Laboratory-wide stewardship and operational control of the BNL Foreign Visits and Assignments program.
The Foreign Visits and Assignments Section (FVA) within the Safeguards and Security Division (SSD) has responsibility for the administration of this program.
The BNL Senior Counterintelligence Officer is responsible for ensuring that the counterintelligence elements of this program are established and maintained.
Associate/Assistant Laboratory Directors (ALD), Department Chairs and Division Managers, and individual hosts have responsibility for the implementation of these procedures.
Department/Division Computer System Administrators are responsible for strictly controlling cyber system access at BNL. These responsibilities will be outlined in specific R2A2s and computer system administrator training.
All Laboratory employees are responsible for becoming familiar with the procedures in the Guest and Visitors Subject Area and for protecting counterintelligence interests, security interests, and sensitive subject information and technologies in a manner consistent with program requirements.
Laboratory employees should contact the Laboratory FVA Administrator located in Building 30, ext. 2355, for questions or assistance.
Assignment: Presence, including employment, of an invited foreign national at a DOE facility for more than 30 calendar days. Assignments are normally for the purpose of participating in the work of the facility, gaining experience, or contributing to projects.
Close and Continuing Contact: Close and continuing contact with a foreign national is defined as a relationship that (a) involves bonds of affection and/or personal obligation, and/or (b) where the employee and foreign national share private time together in a public or private setting where sensitive professional and personal information is discussed or is the target of discussion. This includes contact (including e-mail) regardless of location (on-site or off-site), but does not include incidental contact. Questions concerning this term and the required reporting obligations should be directed to the appropriate counterintelligence officials.
Economic Security: Concerns protection of U.S. proprietary economic or trade secret information from theft by any foreign power (see Economic Espionage Act of 1996).
Export Controlled Information (ECI): Certain unclassified Government information under DOE's cognizance, which requires a specific license or authorization for export under U.S. laws or regulations, and which unrestricted dissemination could reasonably be expected to adversely affect U.S. national security and nonproliferation objectives.
Foreign National: A foreign national is any person who is not a U.S.citizen, and includes permanent resident aliens. Foreign nationals sponsored for visits or assignments may include, among others:
Officials or other persons employed by foreign governments or other foreign institutions, which may or may not be involved in cooperation under international agreements;
Foreign students at U.S. institutions;
Employees of DOE or other U.S. Government agencies or their contractors, of universities, of companies (professional or service staff), or of other institutions; and
Prospective employees of DOE or DOE contractors.
Generic Security Plan: A plan that ensures security interests and sensitive information and technologies are not placed at risk during visits and assignments of foreign nationals.
Host: A DOE or DOE contractor employee who is sponsoring a visitor or assignee as described in the Notice. A visitor or assignee cannot be a host unless he or she is an employee of DOE or a DOE contractor. A sensitive country foreign national cannot be a host of another sensitive country foreign national. The host is directly responsible for ensuring adherence to the requirements of this notice.
Host Report: A statement prepared by the responsible host for a foreign national's visit/assignment (v/a), submitted to the BNL FV/A Office within 15 days of the last day of the scheduled v/a. This report must provide the host's name and the foreign national guest's full name, citizenship, actual dates of the v/a, and a brief statement of incidents, if any, occurring outside the parameters of a normal v/a (see Attachment E).
Indices Check: A procedure whereby a request is made to appropriate U.S. Government agencies to determine whether information exists on a particular foreign national.
International Agreement: An agreement between the United States or an entity thereof, and a foreign country or an entity thereof, or an international organization or an entity thereof, to cooperate in an endeavor of common interest. Included are agreements of specific types, such as umbrella agreements, project agreements, implementing agreements, cooperative agreements, protocols, memoranda of understanding, and contracts providing for cooperative endeavors.
Property Protection Area: A type of security area having boundaries identified with barriers and access controls for the protection of DOE property. At BNL these are the following buildings: 50, Police Headquarters; T-86, Caged Area; 244, Locksmith Shop; 449 and Substations (Telephone Switching Rooms); 459, Business Computing Annex; 491, Experimental Floor; 515, Central Computing Room; 725, Machine Control Computer and Communication Rooms; 750, Caged Area; 860, Hazardous Waste Management Fenced Complex; 937, Tunnel RAM Storage; 911, CAD Equipment Area; and 1005A, RHIC Cryogenic Control Room.
Proprietary Information: Information that contains trade secrets or commercial or financial information, which is privileged or confidential, and may only include such information that
Has been held in confidence by its owner;
Is of a type which is customarily held in confidence by its owner;
Has not been transmitted by the transmitting party to other entities (including the receiving party) except on the basis that it be held in confidence; and
Is not otherwise available to the receiving party from another source without restriction on its further dissemination.
Security Areas: A specific physically bounded area, individually certified by the cognizant security officer, which has been approved by the Department for generating, receiving, using, processing, storing, reproducing, transmitting, destroying, or handling special nuclear material or classified matter. A security facility temporarily sanitized to protect a security interest during a visit or assignment continues to be a security facility for the purposes of this SPI. Security areas at BNL are located in Buildings 50, 197C, 801, and the Property Protection Areas identified above.
Sensitive Country: A country to which particular consideration is given for policy reasons during the DOE internal review and approval process of visits and assignments by foreign nationals. Countries may appear on this list for reasons of national security, nuclear nonproliferation, regional instability, threat to national economic security, or terrorism support. A foreign national is considered to be from a sensitive country if a citizen of, or employed by, a government or institution of a sensitive country. The list of sensitive countries, derived from existing Government sources, will be maintained by Office of Nonproliferation and National Security (see Attachment A).
Sensitive Subject: Unclassified subject/topics identified in existing Federal regulations governing export control as well as those identified by DOE as unique to its work, which involves information, activities, and/or technologies that are relevant to national security. Disclosure of sensitive subjects has the potential for enhancing weapons of mass destruction capability, leading to weapons of mass destruction proliferation, divulging militarily critical technologies, or revealing other advanced technologies, which may adversely affect U.S. national economic security. Therefore, they require special management oversight, especially before release to foreign nationals. The list of sensitive subjects will be maintained by the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security (see Attachment B).
Specific Security Plan: A plan developed and implemented to protect DOE and DOE contractor assets and to prevent the compromise of a DOE security interest or sensitive subject to a foreign visitor or assignee. The specific security plan shall impose specific access restrictions and security countermeasures to ensure effective protection of DOE assets. The security plan will be approved by the approval authority for the unclassified foreign visit or assignment. The effectiveness of the security plan will serve as a critical decision element regarding approval actions. The security plan must provide sufficient detail to support the approval authority in the decision-making process. Attachment C contains a sample specific security plan.
Technology: Also referred to as technical data, technical skills or know-how, or as scientific and technical information. Technology is derived from basic or applied research, development, engineering, technological demonstration, economic and social research, or scientific inquiry into phenomena or technology applications. It may exist as machinery or equipment; it may be recorded, spoken, or represented in a medium for storage of communication, and may be contained in computer software with scientific and technical applications.
U.S. Citizen: A citizen of the United States, including naturalized citizens.
Visit: Presence of a foreign national at a DOE facility for 30 calendar days or less. Visits which total over 30 calendar days in a period of 12 months are defined as assignments. Visits are normally for the purpose of technical discussions, orientation, observation of projects or equipment, training, contract service work, or discussion of collaboration on topics of mutual interest without participation in the work of the facility, or for courtesy purposes. The term "visit" includes officially-sponsored attendance at a DOE event off-site from a DOE facility, but does not include on-, or off-site events and activities open to the general public. Off-site events that do not include participation by DOE or DOE contractor personnel that work in areas of national security and nonproliferation, or have knowledge in subjects of interest to foreign nationals that may attempt to compromise national security may be exempted from the provisions of this notice by the approving official from the host organization.
General
All visits and assignments under this SPI will be on an unclassified basis and visits will normally be limited to information available in the open published literature, unless in accordance with a specific technical exchange agreement, a specific international agreement, or the subject material is fundamental basic research. The release of unpublished, proprietary, or sensitive information must be approved by the appropriate authority with management responsibility over the information and in accordance with directives applicable to the specific program.
Department/Division Computer System Administrators will strictly control certain computer programs and databases at BNL. System Administrators who create accounts on computer systems are expected to know which users have access to their systems. System Administrators and system owners will be registered in a central database to track ownership of BNL systems. Detailed procedures are contained in the BNL Cyber Security Program Plan.
Visits and assignments to BNL may not begin before the completion of the request, review, and appropriate approval process.
Contacts between scientists at BNL and their counterparts from other countries are encouraged in the initial stages of planning for visits and assignments. Directors and managers must ensure that their staffs are aware of these procedures for coordinating the approval of requests and the placement of possible restrictions or limitations on discussions or access before issuing formal invitations.
All requests for foreign national visits and assignments must be submitted in accordance with the section Registering and Approving Foreign Visitors in the Guest and Visitors Subject Area to include using the automated Form BNL-473. Submit all requests before the visit or assignment to allow for completion of the approval process. The minimum lead-time to submit a request from a foreign to the Laboratory FVA Administrator is 30 days before the visit or assignment.
Indices checks must be accomplished for all sensitive country visits and assignments. In addition, indices checks are required for all foreign national visitors and assignees from any country who will have access to sensitive subjects or security areas (excluding PPAs) while at the site. Indices checks must be completed by U.S. Government agencies before an assignment but may be completed after the commencement of a visit that does not involve a sensitive subject or security area (excluding PPAs). The FVA Request Form must be received by the Laboratory FVA Office at least 30 days before the visit or assignment to ensure initiation of the indices checks. When circumstances do not allow for timely submission or completion of an indices check, contact the Laboratory FVA Administrator for assistance.
Specific security plans are required for all visitors and assignees if a citizen of, or employed by, a government or institution of a sensitive country. A specific security plan is also required for any non-sensitive country visit or assignment to a security area (excluding PPAs) or accessing a sensitive subject.
Visitors or assignees who are citizens of or work for an affiliation in a country designated by the Department of State as a state sponsor of terrorism, require approval by the Secretary of Energy's designees before allowing site access. At least 90 days advance notice is necessary for the approval process for these types of visits/assignments. Contact the FVA Office for assistance in completing these requests.
Comply with your organization's internal procedures for processing visits, assignments, or potential new employees.
Complete and submit to the Laboratory FVA Office a specific security plan (Attachment C) for all visits and assignments of sensitive country nationals to BNL. A specific security plan is also required for all non-sensitive country foreign national visits/assignments to a security area (excluding PPAs) or accessing sensitive subjects.
The hosting organization will be notified of final approval of the visit or assignment.
Advise the visitor or assignee of the approval.
Comply with the host responsibilities in Attachment D for all
visits and assignments and with the provisions of the specific security
plan, if required.
C. Qualifying Events as Open-to-the-Public
The Laboratory FVA Office coordinates the review process with the BNL Offices of Counterintelligence, Security, Export Control, and Technology Transfer, and will advise the GIS Administrator when the visit is approved (Attachment G).
The FVA office submits all requests to DOE through the DOE Foreign Access Central Tracking System (FACTS).
This SPI will be used as a generic security plan for all non-sensitive country visits and assignments that do not require a specific security plan. Departments/Divisions may supplement the provisions of this SPI to address unique requirements for a generic security plan in areas under their purview.
Attachment A, Sensitive Countries.
Attachment B, Sensitive Subjects List.
Attachment C, Specific Security Plan.
Attachment D, Host Responsibilities.
Attachment E, Host Report.
Attachment F, Foreign Visitor Attendance Request Form.
Attachment G (PDF), Approval Process Flowchart.
The only official copy of this file is the one online in SBMS. Before using a printed copy, verify that it is the most current version by checking the document effective date on the BNL SBMS website.
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