A HISTORY OF THE NMMSS

The Nuclear Materials Information System (NMIS) was built in the mid- 1960s at the recommendation of the Stanford Research Institute. The system became one of the AEC’S most important management information systems. When fwst built, it was sponsored by the AEC’S Division of Nuclear Materials Management. After the decision was made to build the system, the AEC General Manager assigned the task to the Union Carbide Corporation. Unlike the other two management information systems that were operated at the AEC headquarters, the NMIS was built and operated at Oak Ridge because of the local expertise in nuclear material production and computer systems. A major milestone in the system’s development occurred in 1968 when it began processing transaction data. Another was the establishment of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration in 1975, at which time the two separate agencies began jointly finding the system’s operation. In 1976 the NMIS became the NMMSS when its name was changed to the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System to emphasize the enlarged safeguards role the system was to play in the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). A recent major milestone was the transfer of the NMMSS operations ftom the mainframe operation in Oak Ridge to a PC operation in Norcross, Georgia in September 1995.