SURVEY OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS

As the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory complex undergoes a transformation from a Cold War era nuclear weapons complex into a “21st Century National Security Enterprise,” efforts to consolidate materials and reduce the overall physical footprint of the complex must be implemented in such a way that preserves the ability of the United States to support critical national security missions such as strengthening international safeguards. In 2009, the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) commissioned a multi-laboratory team of experts in international safeguards to survey the DOE and National Laboratory complex for reference materials, working standards, and infrastructure available to support the development, testing, and demonstration of advanced technologies for international safeguards applications. The survey uncovered some “treasures” for safeguards research and development. Initial results are in spreadsheet format but will be compiled into an interactive, user-friendly, web-hosted database that will be periodically updated and made available to approved users complex-wide. This paper will discuss some of the survey’s more interesting findings and outline user requirements for the database.