Experimental demonstration of an isotope-sensitive warhead verification technique using nuclear resonance fluorescence
Abstract
Future nuclear arms reduction efforts will require technologies to verify that warheads slated for dismantlement are authentic without revealing any sensitive weapons design information to international inspectors. Despite several decades of research, no technology has met these requirements simultaneously. Recent work by Kemp et al. [Kemp RS, Danagoulian A, Macdonald RR, Vavrek JR (2016)Proc Natl Acad Sci USA113:8618–8623] has produced a novel physical cryptographic verification protocol that approaches this treaty verification problem by exploiting the isotope-specific nature of nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) measurements to verify the authenticity of a warhead. To protect sensitive information, the NRF signal from the warhead is convolved with that of an encryption foil that contains key warhead isotopes in amounts unknown to the inspector. The convolved spectrum from a candidate warhead is statistically compared against that from an authenticated template warhead to determine whether the candidate itself is authentic. Here we report on recent proof-of-concept warhead verification experiments conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, we measured NRF spectra from the interrogation of proxy “genuine” and “hoax” objects by a 2.52 MeV endpoint bremsstrahlung beam. The observed differences in NRF intensities near 2.2 MeV indicate that the physical cryptographic protocolmore »
- Authors:
-
- Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1432580
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1454833; OSTI ID: 1525296
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0002534
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 115 Journal Issue: 17; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; physical cryptography; nuclear weapons; disarmament; verification
Citation Formats
Vavrek, Jayson R., Henderson, Brian S., and Danagoulian, Areg. Experimental demonstration of an isotope-sensitive warhead verification technique using nuclear resonance fluorescence. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1721278115.
Vavrek, Jayson R., Henderson, Brian S., & Danagoulian, Areg. Experimental demonstration of an isotope-sensitive warhead verification technique using nuclear resonance fluorescence. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721278115
Vavrek, Jayson R., Henderson, Brian S., and Danagoulian, Areg. Tue .
"Experimental demonstration of an isotope-sensitive warhead verification technique using nuclear resonance fluorescence". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721278115.
@article{osti_1432580,
title = {Experimental demonstration of an isotope-sensitive warhead verification technique using nuclear resonance fluorescence},
author = {Vavrek, Jayson R. and Henderson, Brian S. and Danagoulian, Areg},
abstractNote = {Future nuclear arms reduction efforts will require technologies to verify that warheads slated for dismantlement are authentic without revealing any sensitive weapons design information to international inspectors. Despite several decades of research, no technology has met these requirements simultaneously. Recent work by Kemp et al. [Kemp RS, Danagoulian A, Macdonald RR, Vavrek JR (2016)Proc Natl Acad Sci USA113:8618–8623] has produced a novel physical cryptographic verification protocol that approaches this treaty verification problem by exploiting the isotope-specific nature of nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) measurements to verify the authenticity of a warhead. To protect sensitive information, the NRF signal from the warhead is convolved with that of an encryption foil that contains key warhead isotopes in amounts unknown to the inspector. The convolved spectrum from a candidate warhead is statistically compared against that from an authenticated template warhead to determine whether the candidate itself is authentic. Here we report on recent proof-of-concept warhead verification experiments conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, we measured NRF spectra from the interrogation of proxy “genuine” and “hoax” objects by a 2.52 MeV endpoint bremsstrahlung beam. The observed differences in NRF intensities near 2.2 MeV indicate that the physical cryptographic protocol can distinguish between proxy genuine and hoax objects with high confidence in realistic measurement times.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1721278115},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 17,
volume = 115,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721278115
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721278115
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
Fig. 1: Schematic of the physical cryptographic NRF measurement. As an information security measure, the large Pb shields prevent the HPGe detectors from directly observing the proxy warhead. Annotated photographs of the experiment geometry are shown in SI Appendix, Figs. S1 and S2.
All figures and tables
(6 total)
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Physical cryptographic verification of nuclear warheads
journal, July 2016
- Kemp, R. Scott; Danagoulian, Areg; Macdonald, Ruaridh R.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 31
The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof Systems
journal, February 1989
- Goldwasser, Shafi; Micali, Silvio; Rackoff, Charles
- SIAM Journal on Computing, Vol. 18, Issue 1
Nuclear resonance fluorescence excitations near 2 MeV in and
journal, October 2008
- Bertozzi, W.; Caggiano, J. A.; Hensley, W. K.
- Physical Review C, Vol. 78, Issue 4
Nuclear resonance fluorescence and effective Z determination applied to detection and imaging of special nuclear material, explosives, toxic substances and contraband
journal, August 2007
- Bertozzi, William; Korbly, Stephen E.; Ledoux, Robert J.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 261, Issue 1-2
The ADAQ framework: An integrated toolkit for data acquisition and analysis with real and simulated radiation detectors
journal, April 2016
- Hartwig, Zachary S.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 815
A zero-knowledge protocol for nuclear warhead verification
journal, June 2014
- Glaser, Alexander; Barak, Boaz; Goldston, Robert J.
- Nature, Vol. 510, Issue 7506
A physical zero-knowledge object-comparison system for nuclear warhead verification
journal, September 2016
- Philippe, Sébastien; Goldston, Robert J.; Glaser, Alexander
- Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Nuclear Warhead Verification: A Review of Attribute and Template Systems
journal, September 2015
- Yan, Jie; Glaser, Alexander
- Science & Global Security, Vol. 23, Issue 3
Detecting nuclear warheads
journal, January 1990
- Fetter, Steve; Frolov, Valery A.; Miller, Marvin
- Science & Global Security, Vol. 1, Issue 3-4
Nuclear resonance fluorescence measurements of high explosives
conference, October 2007
- Caggiano, Joseph A.; Warren, Glen A.; Korbly, Stephen E.
- 2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record
Supporting Technology for Chain of Custody of Nuclear Weapons and Materials Throughout the Dismantlement and Disposition Processes
journal, May 2014
- Bunch, Kyle J.; Jones, Mark; Ramuhalli, Pradeep
- Science & Global Security, Vol. 22, Issue 2
Nuclear disarmament verification via resonant phenomena
journal, March 2018
- Hecla, Jake J.; Danagoulian, Areg
- Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1
ROOT — An object oriented data analysis framework
journal, April 1997
- Brun, Rene; Rademakers, Fons
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 389, Issue 1-2
Investigation of nuclear structure by resonance fluorescence scattering
journal, January 1996
- Kneissl, U.; Pitz, H. H.; Zilges, A.
- Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 37
Figures / Tables found in this record:
Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.