Los Alamos has taken over from other Department of Energy facilities records and responsibilities related to nuclear weapons surveillance and production, adding literally millions of documents to Los Alamos' stores. In addition, Los Alamos' historical data from decades of nuclear weapon tests have assumed new importance under the science-based stockpile stewardship program.
"To fulfill our mission to the nation requires that we make efficient use of this mountain of valuable information we have inherited and the other records we have compiled over the years," Laboratory Director John Browne said. "Working in partnership with Xerox to develop a knowledge management system will not only address this problem but also provide an opportunity to explore other areas where our needs and capabilities overlap."
"The agreement we have reached with Los Alamos," said John Kavazanjian, vice president, Xerox Software Solutions, "will let us jointly leverage our advanced knowledge management technologies to solve a mission-critical problem at the Laboratory."
"The objective of our partnership with Xerox is not only more efficient management of records, but also an integrated knowledge management system that ensures the preservation of our weapons knowledge base to meet our mission in the future mission," said Steve Younger, associate laboratory director for nuclear weapons.
Los Alamos has received millions of documents from the Rocky Flats facility near Denver and the Mound plant in Ohio, two DOE facilities once involved in weapons production activities. In addition, millions of weapons-related documents already existed at the Laboratory.
Currently those documents reside at six different locations at the Laboratory. Therefore the first step in the project will be to improve document and records management at Los Alamos. The Laboratory's Information and Records Management Group created a plan for a Central Weapons/Production Information Center to consolidate these records into one facility by refurbishing an existing building at the Laboratory.
The records management group and organizations across the Laboratory who use or generate weapons-related information will work with a team from Xerox to define the requirements and structure of a new document management system for the CWIC.
"Our goal is to make this information readily accessible and, as much as possible, available electronically to our employees who need it," said Earleen Eden, who heads the records management group. "This system will meet the information needs of the weapons community and, we expect, also serve as the model for the capture, retention and retrieval of other official Laboratory information and records. This will be a very important contribution to Los Alamos' infrastructure needs."
The document management system that will be developed under the agreement with Xerox will contain hardware, such as scanners and repositories, but the focus of the development project will be the software for knowledge capture, organization, access and reuse.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.