Managing Materials for a 21st Century Military (NMAB)

Released 01.03.07

Since 1939, the U.S. government, using the National Defense Stockpile (NDS), has been stockpiling critical strategic materials for national defense.  The economic and national security environments, however, have changed significantly from the time the NDS was created.  Current threats are more varied, production and processing of key materials is more globally dispersed, the global competition for raw materials is increasing, the U.S. military is more dependent on civilian industry, and industry depends far more on just-in-time inventory control.  To help determine the significance of these changes for the strategic materials stockpile, the Department of Defense asked the NRC to assess the continuing need for and value of the NDS.  This report begins with the historical context of the NDS.  It then presents a discussion of raw-materials and minerals supply, an examination of changing defense planning and materials needs, an analysis of modern tools used to manage materials supply chains, and an assessment of current operational practices of the NDS.  

Executive Summary

Released 06.20.07

The nature of materials research demands mechanisms to support interdisciplinary research to achieve the full potential of materials science and engineering. To this end, the NSF established the Materials Research Science and Engineering (MRSEC) program in 1994 to foster group research on materials in the academic community. After more than ten years, NSF deemed it appropriate to examine the MRSEC program. It requested the NRC to assess the performance and impact of the centers and, in the context of current trends in materials research, recommend future directions and roles for the program. This report provides a review of the overall context of the MRSEC program; an assessment of the impact of its research efforts, facilities, and education and outreach activities; an assessment of the impact of collaboration with industry; and an assessment of the future of the centers.

Released 06.20.07

Within the nation’s infrastructure, there are equipment and facilities that are subject to degradation by corrosion that can seriously compromise infrastructure lifetime, reliability, and functionality. Direct costs of corrosion have been estimated to be about 3.2 % of the U.S.GDP. Better engineering education is essential to improving corrosion control and management, and an assessment of the corrosion curricula of undergraduate engineering schools is timely. To address this topic, the NRC convened the 2007 Materials Forum to examine the current status of corrosion engineering education. This report presents abstracts of the proceedings of that forum. The proceedings examine the motivation for improved corrosion education; assess current practice in the teaching of corrosion at colleges and universities; and analyze the issues that need to be addressed to develop a comprehensive corrosion curriculum in undergraduate engineering.

A Path to the Next Generation of U.S. Banknotes—Keeping it Real (BMED)

Released 02.26.07

The rapid pace at which digital printing is advancing is posing a very serious challenge to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Printing (BEP) to stay ahead of the evolving counterfeiting threats to U.S. currency. To help meet that challenge, the BEP asked the NRC to undertake an assessment of technologies and methods to produce designs to enhance the security of U.S. Federal Reserve notes (FRNs). This report presents the results of a systematic investigation of the trends in digital imaging and printing and how they enable emerging counterfeiting threats; the identification and analysis of new features of FRNs that could provide effective countermeasures to these threats; and an overview of a requirements-driven development process that could be adapted to develop an advanced-generation currency.