2002-2003 Engineering Accomplishments: Unconventional Nuclear Weapons Detection
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, DTRA, is a federal agency charged with safeguarding the nation from weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons such as crude devices, and radiological dispersal devices (RDD), also known as dirty bombs. Both of which could be delivered using unconventional means such as by transporting them by a car or boat. Two years ago DTRA partnered with NNSA to evaluate commercially available technologies that could be deployed quickly to defend against threats posed by unconventional nuclear weapons under a program called the Unconventional Nuclear Warfare Defense (UNWD) Program. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was one of several National laboratories that participated in this program, which consisted in developing, deploying, and demonstrating detection systems suitable for military base protection. Two key contributions to this program by the LLNL team were the development of two Radiation Detection Buoys (RDB) deployed at Naval Base in Kings Bay in Georgia, and the Detection and Tracking System (DTS) demonstrated at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, headquarters for the Total Force's Maneuver Support Center (MANSCEN). The RDB's were designed to detect the potential transportation of an unconventional nuclear or radiological weapon by a boat. The RDB's consisted of two commercial marine buoys instrumented with several types of detectors sensitive to gamma rays and neutrons, two key modes of energy emitted by radioactive materials. The engineering team selected a standard marine buoy as the overall system platform for this deployment since buoys are already designed to sustain the harsh marine environment, and also for their covertness, since once deployed, they look just like any other buoy on the water. Since this was the first time such a system was ever deployed, the team choose to instrument the buoys with a suite of different types of detectors with the goal to learn which detectors would be best suited for future deployments of this kind. This goal has now being achieved, and through a combination of computer modeling and experimental data, the team has gain the necessary knowledge to better understand the capabilities and limitations of RDB's, and the tradeoffs involve in the selection of the different detectors. The two LLNL RDB's are currently operational at Kings Bay, and the team is looking forward to another opportunity to design the next generation RDB's.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15009827
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-TR-204274; TRN: US0406639
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 9 Apr 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Field evaluation of remote wind sensing technologies: Shore-based and buoy mounted LIDAR systems
Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (FY 2018 Data Analysis Annual Report)
Related Subjects
07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
AUTOMOBILES
BOMBS
BUOYS
COMPUTERS
DESIGN
DETECTION
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
SIMULATION
WARFARE
WATER
WEAPONS