A student trains on nuclear safeguards. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Four nuclear nonproliferation staff members from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were recognized as part of the 2021 Outstanding Security Team awarded by the Secretary of Energy for contributions to the Material Control and Accountability Technical Qualification Program Pilot. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Security initiated the pilot to sustain a workforce capable of protecting and maintaining positive accountability our nation’s nuclear materials.
Angela Lousteau, Susan Smith, and Scott Stewart, nuclear engineers with the National Security Sciences Directorate Nuclear Nonproliferation Division, and Sonda Ellis, former administrative assistant with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division, were notified at the end of 2022 of their participation in the team award.
“The pilot program was a collaboration between ORNL engineers, Office of Defense Nuclear Security Staff, NNSA Field Office staff, DOE site contractors, and the DOE National Training Center,” said Lousteau, a leader in non-destructive measurement science and technology “The amount of knowledge and experience this team possesses is astonishing, and I’m honored to be named alongside them.”
Knowledge and firsthand experience in nuclear material control and accountability has decreased greatly over the past decades as nuclear professionals retire. The goal of the Technical Qualification Program is to educate today’s nuclear professionals on effective nuclear safeguards and security programs.
“I am really proud of how hard everyone worked on this project,” said Amy Whitworth, Material Control & Accountability Program manager at NNSA. “We literally moved mountains and could not have done it without the support, technical expertise, and devotion of this team!”
The ORNL team evaluated skills needed for various nuclear security roles when characterizing and accounting for nuclear material and crosschecked these proficiencies with existing training offered by the DOE’s National Training Center. Their analysis influenced the revamping of one e-course and the formal accreditation of two new courses.
Material Control and Accountability is a crucial pillar of ORNL’s nonproliferation mission. Domestic and international safeguards and security programs rely on a robust system to ensure the peaceful use of nuclear materials. Understanding what material is present in the inventory, where and when it moves, and how it is used is critical to an effective security plan for nuclear materials. Measurements are the foundation of this structure, providing information on how much material is in inventory and where it is located. The work performed by ORNL’s Nondestructive Measurement Science and Technology group helps ensure the U.S. and its partner countries maintain a high standard for the control and responsible use of nuclear material.
ORNL provides a wide variety of technical measurement support to NNSA. In addition to the pilot, the laboratory provides training courses in nondestructive assay and applied statistics. To date, over 170 staff from across the NNSA complex have received training from ORNL subject matter experts. The team also supports NNSA by providing measurement expertise during assessments or surveys and has an open nondestructive assay measurement support hotline (NDAsupport@ornl.gov) to offer assistance to professionals at a variety of nuclear sites.
“Through our work for the Office of Defense Nuclear Security, our team has seen how crucial knowledge transfer and retention are to maintaining effective programs. We plan to continue teaching the nondestructive assay course for the foreseeable future and supporting the NNSA sites. In the next few months, a new revision of the DOE Order for Material Control and Accountability will go into effect, and we look forward to assisting NNSA Field Office in meeting the revised requirements,” said Susan Smith, nuclear safeguards engineer at ORNL.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Liz Neunsinger
