Nuclear Material Accounting: The Next Generation

Advances in computer hardware and software technology at the microcomputer level provide attractive alternatives to the current family of nuclear material accounting systems that are used in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) facilities. With this new technology, many of these systems designed and put into place in the 1970's and early 1980's now approach obsolescence. Additionally, many of these older systems are expensive to maintain. Unfortunately, Individual facilities often lack the resources to develop replacement systems based on this new technology and are consigned to use their old systems as long as possible. In many cases, the older systems lack the security features and error propagation capabilities that currently are required by the DOE.