NTS MC&A History

Within the past three and a half years, the Nevada Test Site (NTS) has progressed from a Category IV to a Category I nuclear material facility. In accordance with direction from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator, NTS received shipments of large quantities of special nuclear material from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and other sites in the DOE complex. December 2004 was the first occurrence of Category I material at the NTS, with the exception of two weeks of sub-critical underground testing in 2001, since 1992. The Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) program was originally a jointlab effort by LANL, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Bechtel Nevada, but in March 2006 the NNSA Nevada Site Office appointed the NTS Management and Operations contractor with sole responsibility. This paper will discuss the process and steps taken to transition the NTS MC&A program from multiple organizations to a single entity and from a Category IV to a Category I program. This transition flourished as MC&A progressed from the 2004 Office of Assessment (OA) rating of “Significant Weakness” to the 2007 OA assessment rating of “Effective Performance.” The paper will provide timelines, funding and staffing issues, OA assessment findings and corrective actions, and future expectations. The process has been challenging, but MC&A’s innovative responses to the challenges have been very successful.