Advantages of Having a Facility Version of a Country’s Automated State Nuclear Accounting System

In the United States (US), there are 1,000 plus Material Balance Areas (MBA) identified in the US Automated State Nuclear Accounting (ASNA) System. Of the 1,000 plus MBAs, approximately 100 MBAs report data to the US ASNA System on a weekly basis. Before 1997, the US State System for the Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC) program manually entered 50% or more of the paper data submittals on a daily basis. Most of the paper submittals were reported by facilities with very little activity. There were a few facilities that had activity every day but did not have the resources to invest in developing a software application that would validate and submit their data submittals in electronic form. The US SSAC program was also challenged with facilities, when they submitted data in paper form, using out of date codes and project numbers, making duplicate paper data submittals and data entry mistakes. These high error rates resulted in expenditure of a large number of man-hours helping facilities correct errors and reconciling facility book inventory compared to that in the US ASNA System. In the late 1990s, the US SSAC program developed a stripped down version of the US ASNA System. The software was free for any facility in the US that submits data to the US SSAC program. This paper will address advantages of having and providing a facility version of a country’s ASNA System to reporting facilities. Most emerging nuclear power countries normally do not have the man-power or resources to handle volumes of paper submittals, numerous error corrections and their regular duties. Acquiring tools while building a country’s nuclear program is essential to building a successful nuclear program.