The Future of Nuclear Archaeology: Reducing Legacy Risks of Weapons Fissile Material
This report describes the value proposition for a "nuclear archeological" technical capability and applications program, targeted at resolving uncertainties regarding fissile materials production and use. At its heart, this proposition is that we can never be sure that all fissile material is adequately secure without a clear idea of what "all" means, and that uncertainty in this matter carries risk. We argue that this proposition is as valid today, under emerging state and possible non-state nuclear threats, as it was in an immediate post-Cold-War context, and describe how nuclear archeological methods can be used to verify fissile materials declarations, or estimate and characterize historical fissile materials production independently of declarations.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1290416
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-97363
- Journal Information:
- Science and Global Security, Vol. 22, Issue 1; ISSN 0892-9882
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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