Progress in Gamma Ray Measurement Information Barriers for Nuclear Material Transparency Monitoring
Negotiations between technical representatives of the US and the Russian Federation in support of several pending nuclear arms and nuclear material control agreements must take account of the need for assurances against the release of sensitive information. Most of these agreements involve storing nuclear material and in some cases nuclear components from stockpile weapons in specially designed containers. Strategies for monitoring the agreements typically include measuring neutron and gamma radiation from the controlled items to verify declared attributes of plutonium or highly enriched uranium. If accurate enough to be useful, these measurements will contain information about the design of the component being monitored, information considered sensitive by one or both parties to the agreement. Safeguards have evolved to prevent disclosure of this information during inspections. These measures combine hardware, software, and procedural measures to contain the sensitive data, presenting only the results needed for verification. Custom features preserve data security and guard against disclosure in case of failure. This paper summarizes the general problem and discusses currently developing solutions for a high resolution gamma ray detection system. It argues for the simplest possible implementation of several key system components.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 792727
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-137484; TRN: US0300446
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Institute of Nuclear Material Management 41st Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (US), 07/16/2000--07/20/2000; Other Information: PBD: 3 Jul 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
CONTAINERS
DESIGN
DETECTION
GAMMA RADIATION
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
IMPLEMENTATION
MANAGEMENT
MONITORING
NEUTRONS
PLUTONIUM
RESOLUTION
SAFEGUARDS
SECURITY
VERIFICATION