Integrated Nuclear Materials Management

Accountable nuclear materials, including highly enriched uranium (HEU), plutonium, tritium, and others, are critical resources that must be deliberately managed to ensure U.S. Government objectives are met. In addition, surety of supply of critical nuclear materials to our international trading partners supports U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy. Many of these materials are no longer produced and others are costly to produce, so effective and efficient stewardship of this material is a priority for the Department of Energy (DOE). Furthermore, unneeded materials must be safely and securely stored until a viable disposition option is determined and executed. Nuclear materials management policies and practices have been developed to meet the strategic interests of the nation. To this end, the DOE created the Office of Nuclear Materials Integration (ONMI) to consolidate nuclear material management priorities across its programs and to ensure coordinated inventory management, allocation and use as well as disposition planning. ONMI provides integrated planning, policy guidance, information collection, analysis, and reporting on the life-cycle of accountable nuclear materials. ONMI operates the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System (NMMSS); a database funded in cooperation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), to account for all inventories and transactions of accountable nuclear materials at DOE/NNSA and NRC-licensed sites. In addition to the transaction based NMMSS system, each DOE site conducts an annual assessment of all accountable nuclear materials using the Nuclear Materials Inventory Assessment (NMIA) process. The Office chairs the Nuclear Materials Advisory Board consisting of senior-level representatives from DOE program offices with equities in management, use, and disposition of accountable nuclear materials. This overarching view, allows ONMI to coordinate DOE’s National Strategic Plan for Nuclear Materials - a high- level look at material needs necessary to meet the nation’s strategic objectives. Recognizing the need for a well-informed user community, this paper provides a semi-independent review of ONMI and a perspective of the status of nuclear materials integration efforts. It explains the historical context of the office, examines the mission, specific responsibilities, the challenges facing the office, and finally, highlights the role of ONMI within the larger DOE/NNSA mission.