Expanding Capabilities for Improved Tracking of Nuclear Materials

The Department of Energy’s (DOE's) and national-level nuclear material fuel cycle, national security and dispositioning operations demand the need for improved information technologies and approaches for managing nuclear material data. Programs and sites have nuclear material information needs that demand more timely, complete and reliable inventory information. These requirements not only pertain to active inventories in the fuel cycle but also inactive nuclear materials that are legacy to weapon production operations and orphaned materials such as sealed radioactive sources. Characterizing, processing and disposition planning require the maintenance and analysis of a variety of nuclear material attributes that may exist in various databases. Expanding tracking capabilities through centralized management and standardization and leveraging various sources of data can be a means to meet the various requirements without instituting additional data requests or data collection infrastructures.