Nuclear Materials Review Board at the Nevada National Security Site

The Nuclear Materials Management Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) implemented a Nuclear Materials Review Board (NMRB) process in 2014 to provide an independent and objective review of matters related to life-cycle planning of nuclear materials of interest at NNSS and its offsite facilities. The NMRB process ranks the relative risk of acquiring accountable nuclear materials and includes a storage plan and defined disposition path to ensure materials meet facility acceptance criteria. Acquisition of accountable nuclear materials is determined based on votes cast by NMRB primary members who evaluate the relative risk of complexity or difficulty of implementing programmatic requirements in each member’s area of expertise. Votes are submitted via an electronic checklist of the Nuclear Material Request (NMR) which ranks the complexity or minor difficulty that can be expected for each member’s area of expertise throughout a project’s life-cycle based on the material in question. The NMRB primary members are key stakeholders representing NNSS facilities: the nuclear materials program, nuclear materials inventory, the certified packaging program, environmental compliance, the receiving facility’s manager(s), nuclear assurance, nuclear criticality safety, nuclear materials control and accountability, radiological control, safety and security, and storage. Supplemental members representing process controls systems, sealed source program, transportation, and waste generator services are included as applicable and requested by the primary NMRB members. The representation of each of these functional areas provides a complementary and thorough evaluation of nuclear material acquisition compliance with overarching DOE Orders and NNSS company directives. Once all votes are electronically submitted, the NMRB Chair provides the final risk ranking determination to the nuclear materials requestor. This risk ranking NMRB process is unique to NNSS, and this process has progressed throughout the years; as of Fiscal Year 2023, the NMRB has made two noteworthy advancements: to involve the site facility stakeholders in the voting and to have the process translated to an electronic workflow. Inclusion of NNSS facility representatives in the NMRB and the voting process supports consideration of the risk of each proposed nuclear material acquisition at the level of facility impact in addition to the site-level impact.