Safety Software and Nuclear Material Accountability Systems

Nuclear materials accountability software systems provide data to a variety of users to meet site nuclear materials management and regulatory requirements. Increasingly this data is being used to meet information requirements related to facility safety. Using site nuclear materials accountability system data to meet facility safety basis requirements can subject these systems to Department of Energy (DOE) safety software regulatory requirements. DOE Order 414.1C defines safety software requirements for a category of software called Safety Management and Administrative Controls Software. The safety software requirements promulgated by DOE Order 414.1C impart an additional rigor to an organization’s software quality assurance processes. Applying this additional rigor to the complete suite of software modules for a site can add significant costs and effort when software modifications and data changes are required for nuclear material accountability purposes only. The Information Technology, Nuclear Material Control & Accountability, Facility Safety, and Quality Assurance organizations at the Y-12 National Security Complex collaborated, developed and implemented a unique approach for restructuring its nuclear materials accountability system and manufacturing execution system to meet DOE order safety software requirements which minimizes impact, cost, and effort for software changes related to nuclear materials accountability. This paper describes the efforts at Y-12 to analyze the safety software requirements, develop methods and processes to incorporate the requirements within existing software applications, and the lessons learned. The impact on the organizations involved will also be explored.