Reliability Assessment of Dormant Storage Components

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONSIn the Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE), many high reliability components must be stored for long periods of time before being called on to function a single time. During dormant storage, changes in the performance of these components may occur due to environmental exposures. These exposures may enhance the natural degradation of materials or result in shifts in the performance of electronics. Ongoing assessment of these components is necessary to inform the need for upgrades or replacements to ensure high reliability requirements are being maintained. This paper presents several assessment methodologies that are used and have been proposed for this problem. We also present methods that we believe to be most appropriate for the assessment of nuclear weapons components subjected to dormant storage.