Title: Reducing nuclear material physical inventory requirements
Abstract: Increased weapons returns and materials consolidation initiatives resulting from arms control agreements and mission changes within the Department of Energy (DOE) have increased the amount of special nuclear material (SNM) transferred to long-term storage. Because of these initiatives and changes, the Office of Security Affairs (SA) began reevaluating current policy on the conduct of nuclear material physical inventories in situations where material will be placed in static storage. There are several operational issues that reductions in physical inventory frequency can address. (1) With the increased quantity of nuclear material placed in storage, significant resources, in terms of cost and personnel, are required to conduct periodic verification of inventories. (2) An increase in radiation exposure and high rate of personnel ``burnout`` could occur as a result of these inventory activities. (3) Operational impacts arising from conducting inventories could create problems in the scheduling of nuclear material transfers into storage locations. Under the direction of SA, several working group meetings were held which produced guidance for reducing nuclear material physical inventories during 1992. The SA guidance specifies physical inventory frequencies as a function of alternative control and assurance mechanisms (or measures) employed and level of human access to storage locations. These alternativemore » measures include procedures, technologies, and physical features associated with the storage location that can control unauthorized activities involving nuclear material and provide assurance that nuclear material remains in authorized locations. In addition, performance and design criteria is contained in the guidance to ensure that these measures provide equivalent or greater levels of protection and assurance than those derived from more frequent physical inventories.« less
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-12-31
Language: en
Type: article
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