COMPASS, Quick Cards, and the Master Assessment Schedule at the Y-12 National Security Complex

The Comprehensive Assessment Safeguards Strategies (COMPASS) and Quick Card program provides an additional tool for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Nuclear Materials Control and Accountability (NMC&A) program. The development of the Quick Cards and their function as a general tool for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to be able to evaluate the program is an important step in broadening the range and depth of the assessment of the MC&A program. The Quick Cards – placed in the hands of the SMEs provide an opportunity for MC&A personnel to evaluate facets of the MCA program in the workplace that would not be readily available to an audit team. They allow available persons knowledgeable about the MC&A program to serve as its eyes and ears. The Quick Card information is input into the Master Assessment Schedule for management to ensure the most efficient and practical operation of the MC&A program. The Quick Cards enable MC&A personnel to ensure that program elements are worked on a timely basis, prevent duplication of coverage in any given area when working with operations, provide proper resource allocation within the department, provide information for scheduling purposes to YSO, and provide a portion of the information of assessment of the health of the program. In the course of investigation for a system to determine the health of an NMC&A assessment program, personnel at the Y-12 Plant determined that the COMPASS program had great possibilities for use as a part of the assessment program. Its purpose is to evaluate the program to determine whether or not an element in the program is scoring high enough (is healthy) to ensure the program meets the minimum requirements as set by the charter. This scoring is accomplished by taking the numeric value assigned by the COMPASS board with guidance from the COMPASS Charter. These attributes are reviewed by the COMPASS board and the values assigned as a result of this review multiplied by their assigned values give the attribute an overall value that is an indicator of elemental health and by extension health of the program.