Implementing State-Level Tracking of Nuclear Material

As part of the efforts to increase security of special nuclear material (SNM) following September 11, 2001, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lowered the threshold for reporting inventories of SNM down to 1 gram. Effective January 1, 2009, all NRC and Agreement State licensees possessing 1 g or more of SNM are required to submit annual reports on their SNM inventory. NRC is using the existing Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System (NMMSS) to both track SNM movements and the reconciled inventory of SNM possessed by licensees. Lowering the inventory reporting threshold increased the number of licensees reporting to NMMSS by approximately 170. While reactors and fuel fabricators have staff who routinely handle NMMSS reporting, many of these 170 new licensees were universities, waste handling facilities, and other small businesses with limited personnel and almost no routine interaction with NMMSS. This paper will discuss how the new requirement was implemented and lessons learned from implementation and the process of reconciling the inventories. NRC also operates a similar database, the National Source Tracking System, for tracking encapsulated or sealed sources of a variety of nuclear materials. Countries considering creating national tracking systems for nuclear materials will want to consider the features and benefits of both systems.