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.