Activities and Future Plans for the NBL Program Office

Year
2019
Author(s)
Peter Mason - Department of Energy
Abstract
The former New Brunswick Laboratory was reorganized into the NBL Program Office in 2016. The mission of the NBL PO remains the same, specifically production and certification of nuclear reference materials, ensuring the availability of reference materials to our customers, and providing measurement quality support via proficiency testing and expertise. Since the reorganization, the NBL PO has primarily focused our efforts on: 1. Construction and operation of a new storage and distribution center at the Y12 site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 2. Overseeing the repackaging, disposition and transfer of the 20,000+ nuclear reference materials from the former facility on the Argonne National Laboratory, while maintaining shipments to customers with minimal disruptions, and 3. Establishing business and operating procedures for the new Program Office operating paradigm. The NBL Center at Y12 officially began operations in June 2018 after receipt of a ‘starter kit’ of approximately 800 reference material units. Since then, multiple shipments have transferred a majority of items from the former NBL to Y12 and all orders are now processing from the NBL Center. The NBL PO is now beginning to focus on planning for addressing reference materials needs of our customers. This talk will discuss our recent efforts, development of a strategic plan, multi-year needs assessment and efforts to resume full mission performance in the coming years.