The Effect of Standardizing Material Property Definitions on Nuclear Material Inventories in the U.S. Department of Energy

In the United States, nuclear material of strategic concern is accounted for in a database called the Nuclear Materials Management Safeguards System (NMMSS). The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has for several decades issued policy guidance regarding how to report information to NMMSS. Furthermore, the DOE requires, through sunset provisions, that this policy must be revised on a periodic basis. On October 1, 2003, a revised NMMSS policy was issued. The revised policy addressed a number of issues that have been raised by auditors and corrected some policy problems noted by users of the NMMSS, including the lack of nuclear material property standards. This paper discusses the process used to adopt nuclear material physical property definitions and consensus standards, and the effect of the adoption of these standards on the U.S. nuclear material inventory.