Acceptable Standard Format and Content for the Fundamental Nuclear Material Control Plan Required for Special Nuclear Material of Moderate Strategic Significance – Final Report (NUREG-2159, Revision 1)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: March 2022
Date Published: July 2022

Prepared by:
T. Pham
G. Tuttle
S. Ani

Suzanne Ani, Project Manager

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Availability Notice

Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations governing material control and accounting (MC&A) for licensees authorized to possess and use special nuclear material(SNM) of moderate strategic significance, sometimes referred to as a Category II quantity of material are in Subpart D, "Special Nuclear Material of Moderate Strategic Significance," of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 74, "Material control and accounting of special nuclear material."

SNM of moderate strategic significance means either of the following:

(1)

less than a formula quantity of strategic special nuclear material but more than 1,000 grams of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 20 percent or more in the uranium-235 isotope) or more than 500 grams of uranium-233 or plutonium or in a combined quantity of more than 1,000 grams when computed by the equation: grams = (grams contained uranium-235) + 2(grams uranium-233 + grams plutonium), or

(2)

10,000 grams or more of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 10 percent of more but less than 20 percent in the uranium-235 isotope)

This document provides a structure and information as one means of facilitating compliance with the following regulations about licensee or applicant preparation and implementation of its fundamental nuclear material control plan and corresponding NRC review and inspection:

• 10 CFR 74.41, "Nuclear material control and accounting for special nuclear material of moderate strategic significance"

• 10 CFR 74.43, "Internal controls, inventory, and records"

• 10 CFR 74.45, "Measurements and measurement control"

Such performance-based MC&A requirements, which cover all Category II quantities of material, replace the prescriptive approach that appeared previously in 10 CFR Part 70, "Domestic licensing of special nuclear material," before the NRC consolidated these MC&A requirements in 10 CFR Part 74 in 2002 (67 FR 78130). This report presents recommendations for the acceptable format and content for those fundamental nuclear material control plans, which address the following:

• the performance objectives that must be met

• ​the MC&A system capabilities that must be achieved to meet those objectives

• the incorporation of checks and balances to detect falsification of data and reports that could conceal the theft or diversion of SNM

• basic commitments that should be made