Engineering Papers⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Shoman, Nathan

Publications and source records attributed to Shoman, Nathan.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Inspecta Annual Technical Report

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is designing and developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled smart digital assistant (SDA), Inspecta (International Nuclear Safeguards Personal Examination and Containment Tracking Assistant). The goal is to provide inspectors an in-field digital assistant that can perform tasks identified as tedious, challenging, or prone to human error. During 2021, we defined the requirements for Inspecta based on reviews of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) publications and interviews with former IAEA inspectors. We then mapped the requirements to current commercial or open-source technical capabilities to provide a development path for an initial Inspecta prototype while highlighting potential research and development tasks. We selected a highimpact inspection task that could be performed by an early Inspecta prototype and are developing the initial architecture, including hardware platform. This paper describes the methodology for selecting an initial task scenario, the first set of Inspecta skills needed to assist with that task scenario and finally the design and development of Inspecta’s architecture and platform.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Reactor Safeguards: 2022 Program Roadmap

The Advanced Reactor Safeguards (ARS) program was established in 2020 as part of appropriations for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) through the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy. The goal of this program is to help address near term challenges that advanced nuclear reactor vendors face in meeting domestic Material Control and Accountancy (MC&A) and Physical Protection System (PPS) requirements for U.S. construction. The technical work in the program is meant to (1) support nuclear reactor vendors with advanced MC&A and PPS designs for next generation reactors, (2) provide technical bases for the regulator, and (3) promote the integration of Safeguards and Security by Design early in the design process. Existing domestic regulations for safeguards and security, as outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations, were written for large light water reactors, and rule-making efforts are underway to develop regulations more suited to different reactor designs. The ARS program seeks to remove roadblocks in the deployment of new and advanced reactors by solving regulatory challenges, reducing safeguards and security costs, and utilizing the latest technologies and approaches for robust plant monitoring and protection. This roadmap discusses the goals of the ARS program, current research, and program plan for the next five years.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2022

Results From Invoking Artificial Neural Networks to Measure Insider Threat Detection & Mitigation

Advances on differentiating between malicious intent and natural “organizational evolution” to explain observed anomalies in operational workplace patterns suggest benefit from evaluating collective behaviors observed in the facilities to improve insider threat detection and mitigation (ITDM). Advances in artificial neural networks (ANN) provide more robust pathways for capturing, analyzing, and collating disparate data signals into quantitative descriptions of operational workplace patterns. In response, a joint study by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Texas at Austin explored the effectiveness of commercial artificial neural network (ANN) software to improve ITDM. Overall, this research demonstrates the benefit of learning patterns of organizational behaviors, detecting off-normal (or anomalous) deviations from these patterns, and alerting when certain types, frequencies, or quantities of deviations emerge for improving ITDM. Evaluating nearly 33,000 access control data points and over 1,600 intrusion sensor data points collected over a nearly twelve-month period, this study's results demonstrated the ANN could recognize operational patterns at the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory (NETL) and detect off-normal behaviors—suggesting that ANNs can be used to support a data-analytic approach to ITDM. Several representative experiments were conducted to further evaluate these conclusions, with the resultant insights supporting collective behavior-based analytical approaches to quantitatively describe insider threat detection and mitigation.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗