December 8, 2014

This document is the first annual report of DOE’s Nuclear Safety Research and Development (NSR&D) Program, managed by the Office of Nuclear Safety in the Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security. The report includes a description of the program and summaries of R&D projects related to DOE (including NNSA) nuclear facility and operational safety.

This is the first annual report of Nuclear Safety Research and Development (NSR&D) compiled by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) NSR&D Program. The purpose of the report is to:

  • Describe how DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) identify and prioritize NSR&D needs;
  • Discuss how NSR&D projects are evaluated and funded;
  • Provide brief descriptions of a broad cross-section of NSR&D projects being conducted across the DOE complex. 

DOE’s corporate NSR&D Program was established to provide an enduring Departmental capability to perform research to strengthen the technical bases of DOE’s regulatory infrastructure, enhance technical knowledge and understanding with regard to nuclear facility safety and nuclear explosives safety, and support continuous improvement in the safety of DOE and NNSA nuclear operations by contributing to the resolution of nuclear safety issues. The NSR&D Program is managed by the Office Nuclear Safety, but involves and is supported by DOE and NNSA program offices. NSR&D projects can be managed and funded via the corporate NSR&D Program or by DOE and NNSA program offices, depending upon whether they are focused on addressing site-specific, program office-specific, or corporate issues. Regardless of sponsorship, the NSR&D Program serves to share the NSR&D results DOE-wide to facilitate gaining corporate benefit from the research effort. Consequently, although this report has been developed by the Office of Nuclear Safety as part of DOE’s corporate program, its scope includes NSR&D activities and projects funded by DOE and NNSA program offices as part of their own research initiatives, as well as NSR&D undertaken by DOE contractors as part of Plant-Directed R&D or Laboratory-Directed R&D programs. Summaries of NSR&D projects from these various programs are included in the appendixes of this report.