Download or read book Nuclear Forensics of Special Nuclear Material at Los Alamos written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear forensics of special nuclear materials is a highly specialized field because there are few analytical laboratories in the world that can safely handle nuclear materials, perform high accuracy and precision analysis using validated analytical methods. The goal of nuclear forensics is to establish an unambiguous link between illicitly trafficked nuclear material and its origin. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Nuclear Materials Signatures Program has implemented a graded 'conduct of operations' type approach for determining the unique nuclear, chemical, and physical signatures needed to identify the manufacturing process, intended use, and origin of interdicted nuclear material. In our approach an analysis flow path was developed for determining key signatures necessary for attributing unknown materials to a source. This analysis flow path included both destructive (i.e., alpha spectrometry, ICP-MS, ICP-AES, TIMS, particle size distribution, density and particle fractionation) and non-destructive (i.e., gamma-ray spectrometry, optical microscopy, SEM, XRD, and x-ray fluorescence) characterization techniques. Analytical techniques and results from three recent cases characterized by this analysis flow path along with an evaluation of the usefulness of this approach will be discussed in this paper.

Download or read book Nuclear Forensics at Los Alamos National Laboratory written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overview of this presentation is: (1) Introduction to nonproliferation efforts; (2) Scope of activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory; (3) Facilities for radioanalytical work at LANL; (4) Radiochemical characterization capabilities; and (5) Bulk chemical and materials analysis capabilities. Some conclusions are: (1) Analytical chemistry measurements on plutonium and uranium matrices are critical to numerous defense and non-defense programs including safeguards accountancy verification measurements; (2) Los Alamos National Laboratory operates capable actinide analytical chemistry and material science laboratories suitable for nuclear material forensic characterization; (3) Actinide analytical chemistry uses numerous means to validate and independently verify that measurement data quality objectives are met; and (4) Numerous LANL nuclear facilities support the nuclear material handling, preparation, and analysis capabilities necessary to evaluate samples containing nearly any mass of an actinide (attogram to kilogram levels).

Download or read book Keeping the Momentum and Nuclear Forensics at Los Alamos National Laboratory written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LANL has 70 years of experience in nuclear forensics and supports the community through a wide variety of efforts and leveraged capabilities: Expanding the understanding of nuclear forensics, providing training on nuclear forensics methods, and developing bilateral relationships to expand our understanding of nuclear forensic science. LANL remains highly supportive of several key organizations tasked with carrying forth the Nuclear Security Summit messages: IAEA, GICNT, and INTERPOL. Analytical chemistry measurements on plutonium and uranium matrices are critical to numerous programs including safeguards accountancy verification measurements. Los Alamos National Laboratory operates capable actinide analytical chemistry and material science laboratories suitable for nuclear material and environmental forensic characterization. Los Alamos National Laboratory uses numerous means to validate and independently verify that measurement data quality objectives are met. Numerous LANL nuclear facilities support the nuclear material handling, preparation, and analysis capabilities necessary to evaluate samples containing nearly any mass of an actinide (attogram to kilogram levels).

Download or read book Nuclear Forensics written by Division on Earth and Life Studies and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-07-29 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear forensics is important to our national security. Actions, including provision of appropriate funding, are needed now to sustain and improve the nation's nuclear forensics capabilities. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), working with cooperating agencies and national laboratories, should plan and implement a sustainable, effective nuclear forensics program. Nuclear forensics is the examination and evaluation of discovered or seized nuclear materials and devices or, in cases of nuclear explosions or radiological dispersals, of detonation signals and post-detonation debris. Nuclear forensic evidence helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies work toward preventing, mitigating, and attributing a nuclear or radiological incident. This report, requested by DHS, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Department of Defense, makes recommendations on how to sustain and improve U.S. nuclear forensics capabilities. The United States has developed a nuclear forensics capability that has been demonstrated in real-world incidents of interdicted materials and in exercises of actions required after a nuclear detonation. The committee, however, has concerns about the program and finds that without strong leadership, careful planning, and additional funds, these capabilities will decline.

Download or read book Nuclear Security Los Alamos National Laboratory Faces Challenges in Sustaining Physical and Cyber Security Improvements written by Gene Aloise and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Alamos Nat. Lab. (LANL) is one of 3 Nat. Nuclear Security Admin. (NNSA) labs. that designs and develops nuclear weapons for the U.S. stockpile. LANL employees rely on sensitive and classified information and assets that are protected at different levels, depending on the risks posed if they were lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised. However, LANL has experienced several significant security breaches during the past decade. This testimony provides: (1) views on physical security at LANL, as discussed in a report issued on June 13, 2008; (2) preliminary observations on physical security at Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab.; and (3) views on cyber security at LANL, as discussed in a Sept. 9, 2008 report. Charts and tables.

Download or read book India United States Cooperation on Global Security written by Committee on India-United States Cooperation on Global Security: Technical Aspects of Civilian Nuclear Materials Security and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. government has made safeguarding of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium an international policy priority, and convened The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., on April 12 and 13, 2010. Forty six governments sent delegations to the summit and twenty nine of them made national commitments to support nuclear security. During the Summit, India announced its commitment to establish a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership. The Centre is to be open to international participation through academic0 exchanges, training, and research and development efforts. India-United States Cooperation on Global Security is the summary of a workshop held by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) together with its partner of more than 15 years, the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore, India. The workshop identified and examined potential areas for substantive scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries on issues related to nuclear material security. Technical experts from India and the United States focused on topics of nuclear material security and promising opportunities for India and the United States to learn from each other and cooperate. This report discusses nuclear materials management issues such as nuclear materials accounting, cyber security, physical security, and nuclear forensics.

Download or read book U S and Russian Collaboration in the Area of Nuclear Forensics written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear forensics has become increasingly important in the fight against illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials. The illicit trafficking of nuclear materials is, of course, an international problem; nuclear materials may be mined and milled in one country, manufactured in a second country, diverted at a third location, and detected at a fourth. There have been a number of articles in public policy journals in the past year that call for greater interaction between the U.S. and the rest of the world on the topic of nuclear forensics. Some believe that such international cooperation would help provide a more certain capability to identify the source of the nuclear material used in a terrorist event. An improved international nuclear forensics capability would also be important as part of the IAEA verification toolkit, particularly linked to increased access provided by the additional protocol. A recent study has found that, although international progress has been made in securing weapons-usable HEU and Pu, the effort is still insufficient. They found that nuclear material, located in 40 countries, could be obtained by terrorists and criminals and used for a crude nuclear weapon. Through 2006, the IAEA Illicit Trafficking Database had recorded a total of 607 confirmed events involving illegal possession, theft, or loss of nuclear and other radioactive materials. Although it is difficult to predict the future course of such illicit trafficking, increasingly such activities are viewed as significant threats that merit the development of special capabilities. As early as April, 1996, nuclear forensics was recognized at the G-8 Summit in Moscow as an important element of an illicit nuclear trafficking program. Given international events over the past several years, the value and need for nuclear forensics seems greater than ever. Determining how and where legitimate control of nuclear material was lost and tracing the route of the material from diversion through interdiction are important goals for nuclear forensics and attribution. It is equally important to determine whether additional devices or materials that pose a threat to public safety are also available. Finding the answer to these questions depends on determining the source of the material and its method of production. Nuclear forensics analysis and interpretation provide essential insights into methods of production and sources of illicit radioactive materials. However, they are most powerful when combined with other sources of information, including intelligence and traditional detective work. The certainty of detection and punishment for those who remove nuclear materials from legitimate control provides the ultimate deterrent for such diversion and, ultimately, for the intended goal of such diversion, including nuclear terrorism or proliferation. Consequently, nuclear forensics is an integral part of 'nuclear deterrence' in the 21st century. Nuclear forensics will always be limited by the diagnostic information inherent in the interdicted material. Important markers for traditional forensics (fingerprints, stray material, etc.) can be eliminated or obscured, but many nuclear materials have inherent isotopic or chemical characteristics that serve as unequivocal markers of specific sources, production processes, or transit routes. The information needed for nuclear forensics goes beyond that collected for most commercial and international verification activities. Fortunately, the international nuclear engineering enterprise has a restricted number of conspicuous process steps that makes the interpretation process easier. Ultimately, though, it will always be difficult to distinguish between materials that reflect similar source or production histories, but are derived from disparate sites. Due to the significant capital costs of the equipment and the specialized expertise of the personnel, work in the field of nuclear forensics has been restricted so far to a handful of national and international laboratories. There are a limited number of specialists who have experience working with interdicted nuclear materials and affiliated evidence. Therefore, a knowledge management system that utilizes information resources relevant to nuclear forensic and attribution signatures, processes, origins, and pathways, allowing subject matter experts to access the right information in order to interpret forensics data and draw appropriate conclusions, is essential. In order to determine the origin, point of diversion of the nuclear material, and those responsible for the unauthorized transfer, close relationships are required between governments who maintain inventories and data of fissile or other radioactive materials. Numerous databases exist in many countries and organizations that could be valuable for the future development and application of nuclear forensics.

Download or read book Implosion at Los Alamos written by Ph. D. Glenn a. Walp and published by Publish Green. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2011 IPPY Award Winner Implosion At Los Alamos is a frightening expose that reveals failed security, crime, mismanagement, cover-ups, and corruption at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Ground Zero for America's strongest defense against rogue nations and terroristic entities -- at least it should be. Former Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Glenn Walp was hired by "the lab" to investigate crime and lapsed security that plagued the lab post-9/11. Walp uncovered the theft/loss of more than three million dollars in taxpayer property, including nearly four hundred computers that potentially housed nuclear secrets. Certain lab leaders, concerned that public exposure of these and other administrative and criminal debacles could jeopardize the lab's lucrative government contract, opposed his efforts at every turn. Notwithstanding, Walp and his two partners remained dauntless, exposing to the world the real and present danger to America's nuclear secrets."

Download or read book Nuclear Forensic Analysis written by Kenton J. Moody and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-12-10 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in its second edition, Nuclear Forensic Analysis provides a multidisciplinary reference for forensic scientists, analytical and nuclear chemists, and nuclear physicists in one convenient source. The authors focus particularly on the chemical, physical, and nuclear aspects associated with the production or interrogation of a radioactive sample.

Download or read book Nuclear Physics written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-02-25 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The principal goals of the study were to articulate the scientific rationale and objectives of the field and then to take a long-term strategic view of U.S. nuclear science in the global context for setting future directions for the field. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter provides a long-term assessment of an outlook for nuclear physics. The first phase of the report articulates the scientific rationale and objectives of the field, while the second phase provides a global context for the field and its long-term priorities and proposes a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond. In the second phase of the study, also developing a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond, the committee carefully considered the balance between universities and government facilities in terms of research and workforce development and the role of international collaborations in leveraging future investments. Nuclear physics today is a diverse field, encompassing research that spans dimensions from a tiny fraction of the volume of the individual particles (neutrons and protons) in the atomic nucleus to the enormous scales of astrophysical objects in the cosmos. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter explains the research objectives, which include the desire not only to better understand the nature of matter interacting at the nuclear level, but also to describe the state of the universe that existed at the big bang. This report explains how the universe can now be studied in the most advanced colliding-beam accelerators, where strong forces are the dominant interactions, as well as the nature of neutrinos.

Download or read book The New Nuclear Forensics written by Vitaly Fedchenko and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear material changes its form and properties as it moves through the nuclear fuel cycle, from one facility to another. Each step of the fuel cycle or each use of the material will inevitably leave its mark. The science of determining the history of a sample of nuclear material through the study of these characteristics is known as nuclear forensics. While nuclear forensic analysis has normally been associated with investigations and prosecutions in the contextof trafficking of nuclear materials or nuclear terrorism, it had wider applications in in national security contexts, such as nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control. The New Nuclear Forensics is the first book to give a definitive guide to this broader definition of nuclear forensic analysis. This book describes the various methods used in nuclear forensics, giving first a broad introduction to the process followed by details of relevant measurement techniques and procedures. In each case, the advantages and limitations are outlined. To put these methods in context, the book also recounts the history of the discipline anddescribes the diverse contemporary applications of nuclear forensics.

Download or read book Los Alamos National Laboratory written by United States Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Alamos National Laboratory: Information on Security of Classified Data, Nuclear Material Controls, Nuclear and Worker Safety, and Project Management Weaknesses

Download or read book Analytical and Radiochemistry for Nuclear Forensics written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information about nonproliferation nuclear forensics, activities in forensics at Los Alamos National Laboratory, radio analytical work at LANL, radiochemical characterization capabilities, bulk chemical and materials analysis capabilities, and future interests in forensics interactions.

Download or read book Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Special Nuclear Materials Cutoff Exercise written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a September 1993 address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Clinton announced a new nonproliferation and export control policy that established a framework for US efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The new policy proposed that the US undertake a comprehensive approach to the growing accumulation of fissile material. One of the key elements was for the US to support a special nuclear materials (SNM) multilateral convention prohibiting the production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) or plutonium for nuclear explosives purposes or outside of international safeguards. This policy is often referred to as the President's Cutoff Initiative or the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). Because both the US Department of Energy (DOE) and foreign reprocessing facilities similar to PUREX will likely to be inspected under a FMCT, the DOE Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Negotiations and Analysis Division (DOE/NN-41) tasked Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to perform an information gathering exercise, the PUREX Exercise, using the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant located on the Hanford Site in Washington State. PUREX is a former production reactor fuel reprocessing plant currently undergoing a transition to a ''decontamination and decommissioning (D & D) ready'' mode. The PUREX Exercise was conducted March 29--30, 1994, to examine aspects of the imposition of several possible cutoff regimes and to study verification of non-production of SNM for nuclear weapons purposes or outside of safeguards. A follow-up activity to further examine various additional verification regimes was held at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on May 10, 1994.

Download or read book H R 2631 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Homeland Security. Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Nuclear Forensics Techniques for Attributing Material Used in a Radiological Dispersal Device Event written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If a radiological dispersal device (RDD) is detonated in the U.S. or near U.S. interests overseas, it will be crucial that the actors involved in the event can be identified quickly. Law enforcement officials will need information concerning the material used in the device, specifically what type of material it was and from where it originated. This information will then be used to help identify the specific individuals who manufactured the device and perpetrated the event. Texas A & M University and Los Alamos National Laboratory are collaborating on the development of a technique for identifying the material used in a radiological dispersal device. This methodology is currently focused on radiological dispersal devices that make use of spent nuclear fuel as the source material. The methodology developed makes use of both a forward model and an inverse model to identify specific spent fuel characteristics using isotopic composition of RDD debris. The forward model is based on sophisticated reactor physics calculations for the prediction of spent fuel isotopic compositions as a function of fuel type (e.g., PWR, BWR, CANDU, RBMK, etc.), fuel burnup (in MWd/MTHM), fuel age (in years since permanent discharge from the reactor), and operating characteristics (e.g., operating power level, time at power, etc.). These reactor physics calculations are benchmarked to measured data to establish their accuracy in predicting isotopic compositions. The inverse model makes use of a Bayesian inverse method to identify the specific spent fuel assembly (or assemblies) used based on measurements of actinide and fission product isotopic ratios in the RDD debris. A description of both the forward and inverse models, accuracies of the technique, and the results to date are given.