Systems Engineering Considerations for Selection of Type B Packages

The Department of Energy has a significant quantity of surplus special nuclear materials. The Department is accelerating its disposition of these materials to reduce the cost and risk of their continued management. Packaging and transportation are critical elements of these disposition plans. Developing new packaging options can take as long as modifying a facility or conducting an environmental impact study. Project managers are learning that packaging and transportation decisions can cause significant delays to disposition schedules, and can drastically increase project costs if they are not addressed in a timely fashion. What isn’t well understood is the impact that packaging and transportation decisions have across project lines. Package selection affects transportation resources that are shared by multiple disposition projects. Package selection can also impact long-term storage and material surveillance activities. A systems-engineering approach to package selection is needed at the program level before individual projects can reap the maximum benefit. This paper describes a structured, systems engineering approach for managing packaging and transportation aspects of SNM disposition more effectively. This approach has significant benefits at the project level, but has greater implications for program level management of transportation and packaging activities. This approach successfully reduced program costs by over three million dollars in fiscal year 2002 alone. It has the potential for much greater benefits in the future if increased cooperation can be generated across program office boundaries. The systems engineering approach my team developed addresses all aspects of package management and transportation planning.