Training for fissile material handlers, supervisors, and general personnel

Hands on training for Fissile Material Handlers (FMH) from TA55 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is being performed at Sandia National Laboratories and at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada Test Site. The courses are designed to give operators experience in taking special nuclear material critical in a controlled environment, and experience on how different parameters effect nuclear criticality for different types of systems. The Sandia course involves the use of an experimental reactor containing low enriched uranium fuel pins. Approach to critical experiments range from adding mass, adding water to an over massed system, separating two halves of the core, or removing fuel rods to achieve criticality. The last two experiments are designed to show the counterintuitive nature of nuclear criticality safety, which demonstrates precisely why we back away from any system that is a suspected process deviation. The experiments at NCERC are performed in conjunction with the critical experiments group at Los Alamos involving neutronically fast, reflected systems as well as an experiment involving polyethylene plates that mimics a solution system. This curriculum also encompasses specific training for Criticality Safety Officers (CSO) as well as nuclear material supervisors, known as Operations Responsible Supervisors (ORS) at LANL. As CSOs and ORSs interact more frequently than other individuals with the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD), the training focuses on day to day interfacing with NCSD. These interfaces include how to request/schedule work with the division, how the Criticality Safety Evaluation (CSE) process develops, and the basics of a Credible Events Analysis (CEA) which determines normal and credible abnormal conditions within each operation. In addition, the class emphasizes the importance of an on-going and positive relationship between the NCSD and operations personnel. Fissile material handling training is also offered in a graded scale at LANL, in order to give the necessary information to the correct people, depending on what that individual's work entails. For example, operators who are regularly handling nuclear material inside of a glovebox enclosure will receive very detailed criticality safety training, which includes examples of previous criticality accidents and the lessons learned from those events. However, an operator working with waste drums will receive less detailed instruction, as those activities are lower risk due to the nature of the process. This ensures that operators will be given pertinent information related to their specific process, thus aiding in the retention of the important objectives. (authors)