August 20, 2014

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Neutron Generator Activities

Neutron generators (NG) are nuclear weapon components that have a limited lifetime due to their use of tritium, a radioactive gas which decays over time. Periodic replacement of these components is necessary to sustain weapon system functionality and is an on-going process managed by NNSA and the Department of Defense.  NNSA's Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) carry out NG design and production through Limited Life Component Exchanges (LLCE) and weapon refurbishment activities such as Life Extension Programs (LEP). SNL's NG Enterprise performs activities related to planning, developing, qualifying and sustaining NGs for all weapon systems. Due to the importance of the NG Enterprise's mission, we initiated this audit to determine whether NNSA is effectively managing NG activities for weapon systems.

Our review disclosed that NNSA and SNL face a number of challenges and risks with NG design and production activities. Specifically, we noted that SNL will need to significantly increase NG production over the coming years to meet LLCE and LEP requirements. In addition, we noted that SNL had not established a costing methodology that consistently included a fair share of infrastructure costs to ensure full cost recovery for NG units to be built for the United Kingdom. To its credit, SNL recognized that its costing methodology had been inconsistent and initiated an improvement activity to update both the NG product cost and the basis for the product cost calculation so that it was more representative of actual NG production costs.

Given SNL's ongoing actions to address NG production issues and costing methodology, we suggested that the Manager, Sandia Field Office direct SNL to remain vigilant to ensure that required NG production deliverables are achieved; and continue evaluating unit costing methodologies to ensure full cost recovery of the NGs produced for the United Kingdom.
 

Topic: National Security & Safety