Lean Nuclear Materials Supply Chain Management for Safeguards/MC&A Enhancement in Processing Facilities Design (U)

In the absence of definitive Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) guidance relating to design requirements for domestic, government owned, nuclear materials processing facilities, regulatory standards have not been compiled sufficiently to be design requirements, or are non-existent altogether. Safeguards/Materials Control and Accountability (MC&A) measures cannot be unlimited in scope or cost, based upon whatever the MC&A engineers want in the facility. To effectively integrate safeguards/MC&A in the layout of processing facilities early in the design process, nuclear materials production throughput requirements can be leveraged to enhance the needs of multiple organizations. Application of “Lean Techniques” by the architects in a facilities layout and by the engineers for a facilities various process areas can provide an enhanced structured system of material control and accountability measures, as well as physical protection. Reducing many of a production system’s “muda” wastes as identified by the Toyota Production System enhances nuclear safeguards. Lean implementation is focused on getting the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity, to achieve the right process flow while minimizing wrong waste and being flexible and able to change. Explaining the role of “Lean” and how it enhances the integration of safeguards/MC&A systems in the next generation Lean-Pull production processing facilities and process systems during preliminary design is the goal of this paper.