DOE Order 410.X Management of Nuclear Materials

A new Department of Energy (DOE) Order for Management of Nuclear Materials has been completed to replace DOE O 5660.1B, which was issued in May of 1994. The purpose of the order is to establish requirements for the life-cycle management of DOE-owned and/or DOE- managed accountable nuclear materials. DOE O 410.X recognizes the new Office of Nuclear Material Integration (ONMI) in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is established to facilitate greater integrations of nuclear materials management activities across DOE/NNSA organizations. The ONMI will carry out its mission in close coordination with the Nuclear Materials Advisory Board (NMAB), which will include a senior representative from each of the DOE headquarters organizations that manage any of the specified nuclear materials. With the advice and council of the NMAB, the ONMI may designate a DOE headquarters organization or field element to serve as the Lead Materials Management Organization (LMMO) for a specific nuclear material(s), as warranted. Many of the requirements and responsibilities in the order are comparable to those in DOE O 5660.1B, including the requirement for the DOE field elements to prepare an annual material allotment forecast, a Nuclear Materials Management Plan (NMMP), a Nuclear Materials Inventory Assessment (NMIA), and effectively manage nuclear materials under their jurisdiction. The order requires the DOE field elements to establish project numbers, provide for the safe and secure packaging, storage, stabilization, and consolidation or disposition of nuclear materials, categorize nuclear materials under their jurisdiction as either Defined Use or No Defined Use, and effectively manage Restricted Use or National Asset Materials. The ONMI, with the support of NMAB, is required to prepare a National Strategic Plan for Manage of DOE Nuclear Materials every three years. The ONMI must develop and provide nuclear materials management policy and guidance annually, or as required, to all applicable DOE field elements for preparation of the required reports and conduct of nuclear material management activities. With the concurrence of the NMAB, the ONMI may exempt specific sites or materials from the requirements of this order, as warranted. The Department of Energy is in the final stages of review and approval of a proposed new order for the management of special nuclear materials, DOE O 410.X, Management of Nuclear Materials. The proposed new order will replace DOE Order 5660.1B, which was issued in May of 1994. The proposed new order institutionalizes organizational changes, recommended by the Department’s Nuclear Materials Disposition and Consolidation Coordinating Committee (NMDCCC), that recognize and support cross-program dependencies that were not visualized when the previous order was implemented.