Nuclear Forensics Research and Development

The Department of Energy has named Y-12 the National Uranium Materials Archive.

This storage center holds physical samples that can be retrieved when, for example, smuggled uranium materials are interdicted and the evidence has to be analyzed and compared with samples having known histories.

Y‑12 is working with nuclear forensics experts throughout the U.S. — at Los Alamos, Pacific Northwest, Oak Ridge and Savannah River national laboratories as well as others — to establish guidelines and requirements defining how the archive will be populated and used.