Year
1989
Abstract
An inventory verification procedure was developed for facilities with very large and diverse item inventories to meet the material control and accountability performance requirements specified in the U.S. Department of Energy orders for protracted thefts or diversions. The large number pf special nuclear material (SNM)-bearing items in the material balance area inventory mandates that a statistical sampling plan be implemented. Containment of the SNM in a wide range of quantities and in different types of items permits the stratification of the inventory into ranges defined by the attractiveness of the SNM. The attractiveness of the SNM is defined by the average quantity of 235U removable by an adversary per man-hour. Inventory verification periods were determined from the minimum length of time required for an adversary to obtain the target quantity of SNM from each stratum. The number of items to be verified within each stratum was calculated based on the desired detection probability.