Volume 7, Number 1
September 2009

The MC&A Technical Division

by Chris A. Pickett

The Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) Technical Division of INMM is dedicated to the improvement and promulgation of methodologies and technologies used for the measurement, control and accounting of nuclear materials including the policies and practices that support these functions.  The MC&A Technical Division focuses on the needs of what are sometimes called “Domestic Safeguards or Domestic MC&A.” 

These terms refer to the in-country practices of nuclear materials management that are typically regulated by national/state authorities that oversee the policies and practices for governing in-country nuclear materials management.  The MC&A Technical Division therefore represents a forum for all countries that have domestic MC&A programs and we welcome their participation and support for the activities of our Technical Division.

During the past couple of years, the MC&A Technical Division reorganized itself into five standing committees and two user’s groups. These committees and their leaders have been actively engaged in supporting the mission of the division and the Institute.  The committees and their leaders are listed below along with a short summary on some of their recent activities.

• Measurements – Mike Baker
  • NDA User’s Group – Saleem Salaymeh
  • DA User’s Group – Stephan Vogt
• Nuclear Materials Management – Teresa Knight and Ben Watts
• Accounting Systems – Andrew Jackson
• Policy and Best Practices – Steve Wyrick and Glenn Tuttle
• Material Control Systems – TBD (Looking for a Leader!)

Measurements Committee:
The MC&A Technical Division recently hosted an international workshop on Gamma Measurement Codes, Nov. 3-7, 2008, in Oak Ridge, Tenn. USA. It was a joint workshop with ESARDA. Presentations and information from the workshop can be found on the INMM Web site.

The NDA user's group met at the 50th Annual INMM meeting on July 12, 2009. The meeting was well attended with 40+ present. Four speakers provided presentations:

• “A DOE Headquarters update on NDA needs for the future"
  Jim Sprinkle, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• "Training Needs White Paper
  Peter Santi, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• "Who should we train?"
  Stephen Croft, Canberra
• "He-3 Supplies and Potential Replacements"
  Bob McElroy, Canberra.

The next NDA-UG meeting will be in January 2010 at the winter ASTM C26.10 meeting and is open to all individuals interested in nuclear materials measurements. For more information, contact Saleem Salaymeh.

The Destructive Analysis User Group (DA-UG) organized a special session on Nuclear Forensics at the INMM 50th Annual Meeting. Sixteen papers were received for this session resulting in two full half-day sessions. The sessions were very well received and a plenary discussion with the audience resulted in suggesting two special sessions be prepared for the 51st INMM meeting in Baltimore in 2010. One session could focus on nuclear forensics and a second session could focus on destructive methods for nuclear material analysis to better separate the two closely related topics.  Any member interested in joining the DA-UG should contact Stephan Vogt.

Nuclear Materials Management Committee
The Nuclear Materials Management Standing Committee arranged and hosted two nuclear materials management sessions at the annual meeting.  Presenters represented federal, contractors and commercial material management professionals, presenting a wide variety of materials management topics.  The major topics addressed included supporting U.S. Department of Energy complex-wide transformation initiatives and material consolidation activities; discussions of materials management current events and long term strategic planning; and communication of lessons learned and program successes.

The Nuclear Materials Management Committee continues efforts with planning and structuring Committee meeting activities as well as recruiting new members.  One of the primary activities targeted for 2010 is to achieve broader representation by recruiting active members from the commercial and international material management communities. Contact Ben Watts for more information.

Accounting Systems Committee
The Accounting Systems Committee met during the annual meeting with five members in attendance.  Two additional INNM members volunteered to serve and one member stepped down.  Tina Barnett (NAC International) and Sylvester Suda (TechSource, Inc.) joined the committee and Roger Blue (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – U.K.) stepped down due to other work priorities.  The committee currently has seven active members.

Over the past year, the committee has recruited one new INMM member, worked with the Southeast Chapter to develop plans for a workshop on nuclear materials accountancy, solicited and received one paper which was presented at the annual meeting, and developed plans for the upcoming year.

The goals of the committee for the year 2009-2010 are to:

• Organize the committee members’ expertise in support of INMM goals
• Assess and document the current state of MC&A accountancy systems
• Develop a statement of resources which highlight the committee members’ expertise
• Continue to work with the Southeast Chapter to plan a workshop while looking at the possibility of sponsoring a workshop that would have international participation
• Continue to recruit new members and solicit technical papers for presentation at the annual meeting

Any individual interested in helping with committee activities should contact Andrew Jackson.

Policy & Best Practices Committee
The Policy and Best Practices committee recently underwent a leadership transition this past July when Dr. Steve Wyrick of the Savannah River National Laboratory assumed the new co-chair leadership role (with current co-chair Glenn Tuttle) from the out-going co-chair Jeff Jay.  

Wyrick brings extensive scientific and program management skills to the MC&A Technical Division with experience in a diverse set of government, industry, consulting and academic sectors.  He is currently the Manager, Defense Programs Engineering Technology Group within the Savannah River Laboratory’s Energy Security and Engineering Directorate with more than 27 years of experience in advanced technologies and automated processes, many for NNSA and non-DOE customer applications.  

He has strong credentials as an analytical chemist, line manager, project/product manager and teacher and trainer.  He is a member of INMM and a member of the ASTM Committee C-26 on the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.  Dr. Wyrick has his PhD in Physical Chemistry with a minor in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Cincinnati. Please join us in welcoming Steve to the MC&A Technical Division Team!

Other Initiatives Underway for 2010
Stay tuned for enhancements to the INMM Web site. Marek Flaska, one of our new team members from the University of Michigan, is developing some concepts for the MC&A Technical Division pages of the INMM Web site.  Our goal is to create a place for archiving and sharing information on the work being conducted by our committees and user groups.

Mark Your Calendars
Efforts are under way for the MC&A & Physical Protection Technical Divisions, in conjunction with the INMM Central Region Chapter and the University of Missouri Student Chapter to host a February 2010 workshop/career fair on developing human resources for safeguards.  The workshop will be hosted at the University of Missouri.
In conclusion, I would like thank to all MC&A practitioners that participated in our Technical Division Meeting on Sunday afternoon prior to the beginning of the annual meeting.  This year more than 60 people attended the Division Meeting, including individuals from Japan, South America and Sweden.

In addition, I would like to thank Cameron Coates for his continued support in providing technical reviewers for MC&A papers submitted to the Journal of Nuclear Materials Management and a special thanks to Cary Crawford and Jim Sprinkle for their leadership and support in managing the MC&A Technical Division.