The tutorial provides an overview of the U.S. nuclear weapon system safety design process and the approach taken to assess and manage system safety throughout the weapon lifecycle. Key considerations include the emergence of stringent safety requirements, the simplifying concept of assured safety implemented using the nuclear safety design principles of incompatibility, isolation, and inoperability, which are integrated using multiple safety layers (a.k.a., subsystems) of safety features having independent failure causes to assure safe responses are achieved in a predictable manner in all relevant environments. Emphasis is given to novel system safety design approaches and methods for achieving rigorous critical technical review of the state of safety of weapon systems by independent experts throughout its lifecycle.
