COOPERATION ON NONDESTRUCTIVE ASSAY ISOTOPIC ENRICHMENT MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS UNDER THE DOE/NNSA-ABACC SAFEGUARDS COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) agreed to cooperate on the testing and evaluation of isotopic enrichment measurement software. The project is significant because it provides a regional forum for technical experts to evaluate and standardize isotopic enrichment measurement software used to verify operator declarations for enriched uranium. DOE/NNSA and ABACC initiated the project by establishing an Isotopics Measurements Working Group (IMWG) that will test existing software packages and provide guidance for standardizing and upgrading the software to broaden the applicability, improve the data quality, and ensure that software quality assurance objectives are being met. This paper describes the objectives and scope of the project, the structure and organization of the IMWG, the methods and procedures for testing and evaluating the various software programs, and the current development status of the IMWG activities.