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Title: Nuclear criticality safety staff training and qualifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

Operations involving significant quantities of fissile material have been conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory continuously since 1943. Until the advent of the Laboratory`s Nuclear Criticality Safety Committee (NCSC) in 1957, line management had sole responsibility for controlling criticality risks. From 1957 until 1961, the NCSC was the Laboratory body which promulgated policy guidance as well as some technical guidance for specific operations. In 1961 the Laboratory created the position of Nuclear Criticality Safety Office (in addition to the NCSC). In 1980, Laboratory management moved the Criticality Safety Officer (and one other LACEF staff member who, by that time, was also working nearly full-time on criticality safety issues) into the Health Division office. Later that same year the Criticality Safety Group, H-6 (at that time) was created within H-Division, and staffed by these two individuals. The training and education of these individuals in the art of criticality safety was almost entirely self-regulated, depending heavily on technical interactions between each other, as well as NCSC, LACEF, operations, other facility, and broader criticality safety community personnel. Although the Los Alamos criticality safety group has grown both in size and formality of operations since 1980, the basic philosophy that a criticality specialist mustmore » be developed through mentoring and self motivation remains the same. Formally, this philosophy has been captured in an internal policy, document ``Conduct of Business in the Nuclear Criticality Safety Group.`` There are no short cuts or substitutes in the development of a criticality safety specialist. A person must have a self-motivated personality, excellent communications skills, a thorough understanding of the principals of neutron physics, a safety-conscious and helpful attitude, a good perspective of real risk, as well as a detailed understanding of process operations and credible upsets.« less

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
474906
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-97-81; CONF-970607-21
ON: DE97003393; TRN: 97:010411
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-ENG-36
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: ARS `97: American Nuclear Society (ANS) international meeting on advanced reactors safety, Orlando, FL (United States), 1-5 Jun 1997; Other Information: PBD: [1997]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
05 NUCLEAR FUELS; LANL; SAFETY ENGINEERING; TRAINING; CRITICALITY; FISSILE MATERIALS; SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL

Citation Formats

Monahan, S P, and McLaughlin, T P. Nuclear criticality safety staff training and qualifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory. United States: N. p., 1997. Web.
Monahan, S P, & McLaughlin, T P. Nuclear criticality safety staff training and qualifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory. United States.
Monahan, S P, and McLaughlin, T P. 1997. "Nuclear criticality safety staff training and qualifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/474906.
@article{osti_474906,
title = {Nuclear criticality safety staff training and qualifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory},
author = {Monahan, S P and McLaughlin, T P},
abstractNote = {Operations involving significant quantities of fissile material have been conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory continuously since 1943. Until the advent of the Laboratory`s Nuclear Criticality Safety Committee (NCSC) in 1957, line management had sole responsibility for controlling criticality risks. From 1957 until 1961, the NCSC was the Laboratory body which promulgated policy guidance as well as some technical guidance for specific operations. In 1961 the Laboratory created the position of Nuclear Criticality Safety Office (in addition to the NCSC). In 1980, Laboratory management moved the Criticality Safety Officer (and one other LACEF staff member who, by that time, was also working nearly full-time on criticality safety issues) into the Health Division office. Later that same year the Criticality Safety Group, H-6 (at that time) was created within H-Division, and staffed by these two individuals. The training and education of these individuals in the art of criticality safety was almost entirely self-regulated, depending heavily on technical interactions between each other, as well as NCSC, LACEF, operations, other facility, and broader criticality safety community personnel. Although the Los Alamos criticality safety group has grown both in size and formality of operations since 1980, the basic philosophy that a criticality specialist must be developed through mentoring and self motivation remains the same. Formally, this philosophy has been captured in an internal policy, document ``Conduct of Business in the Nuclear Criticality Safety Group.`` There are no short cuts or substitutes in the development of a criticality safety specialist. A person must have a self-motivated personality, excellent communications skills, a thorough understanding of the principals of neutron physics, a safety-conscious and helpful attitude, a good perspective of real risk, as well as a detailed understanding of process operations and credible upsets.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/474906}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1997},
month = {Thu May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1997}
}

Conference:
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