A new method of passive counting of nuclear missile warheads -a white paper for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Technical Report · Fri Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1207736· OSTI ID:1207736

Morris, Christopher ^[1]; Durham, J. Matthew ^[1]; Guardincerri, Elena ^[1]; Bacon, Jeffrey Darnell ^[1]; Wang, Zhehui ^[1]; Fellows, Shelby ^[1]; Poulson, Daniel Cris ^[1]; Plaud-Ramos, Kenie Omar ^[1]; Daughton, Tess Marie ^[1]; Johnson, Olivia Ruth ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Cosmic ray muon imaging has been studied for the past several years as a possible technique for nuclear warhead inspection and verification as part of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation. The Los Alamos team has studied two different muon imaging methods for this application, using detectors on two sides and one side of the object of interest. In this report we present results obtained on single sided imaging of configurations aimed at demonstrating the potential of this technique for counting nuclear warheads in place with detectors above the closed hatch of a ballistic missile submarine.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOD; USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1207736
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-26068
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Nuclear Disarmament
Safeguards
& Physical Protection(98)
single sided neutron tagged cosmic ray imaging warhead verification