Dr. Mike Westfall, ORNL

Department Of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Program

The Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) was formed in 1997 in response to Recommendation 97-2 of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) to the Department of Energy. Four of the ten NCSP tasks were subsumed from the earlier DOE Nuclear Criticality Predictability Program, which was a response to DNFSB Rec.93-2.

The NCSP addresses needs in both the operational as well as the technology development elements of nuclear criticality safety. The entire DOE complex participates in the NCSP. Leadership is centered primarily with four institutions: ORNL, LANL, ANL and INEEL.

ORNL performs the lead role for three of the tasks: Analytical Methods (Mike Westfall), Nuclear Data (Bob Roussin) and Applicable Ranges of Bounding Curves & Data (Calvin Hopper). The presentation will include more detail on how the NCSP is organized and highlights from each of the ten NCSP tasks.