Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque Automated Bar-Coded System for Controlling Nuclear Materials*

Sandia National Laboratories uses an automated inventorycontrol system to account for nuclear material. This system provides advantages in accuracy of daily transactions, in inventory reconciliations, and in location control. The unique feature of this computerized system is bar coding, which is the focus of this paper. A minicomputer generates an 8-digit control number on a bar-coded label when accountability is initially established for each item of nuclear material. The label ensures that only properly bar-code labeled nuclear material can be transferred within Sandia, inventoried, shipped, or expended.