SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Various shots of the representatives of various countries signing the outer space treaty in Moscow. Various shots as the 'big 3' sign the agreement - Mr Andrei Gromyko for Russia, then British Ambassador Sir Geoffrey Harrison for Britain and American Ambassador Llewllyn Thompson for America. Prime Minister of USSR Alexei Kosygin stands behind and watches events. They address the assembly after signing.
Jimmy Carter remarks at SALT II Treaty signing with Leonid Brezhnev June 18, 1979 archival footage.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign INF Treaty.
This is video footage of President Clinton delivering a statement to the press on signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and answering press pool questions before departing Kansas City, Missouri. This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library.
The International Monitoring System of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) uses a global network of radionuclide monitoring stations to detect evidence of a nuclear explosion. The two radionuclide technologies employed—particulate and noble gas (radioxenon) detection—have applications for data fusion to improve detection of a nuclear explosion. Using the hypothetical 0.5 kT nuclear explosive test scenario of the CTBTO 2014 Integrated Field Exercise, the intrinsic relationship between particulate and noble gas signatures has been examined. Here this study shows that, depending upon the time of the radioxenon release, the particulate progeny can produce the more detectable signature. Thus, as both particulate and noble gas signatures are inherently coupled, the authors recommend that the sample categorization schemes should be linked.
In 2015 and 2016, atmospheric transport modeling challenges were conducted in the context of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) verification, however, with a more limited scope with respect to emission inventories, simulation period and number of relevant samples (i.e., those above the Minimum Detectable Concentration (MDC)) involved. Therefore, a more comprehensive atmospheric transport modeling challenge was organized in 2019. Stack release data of Xe-133 were provided by the Institut National des Radioéléments/IRE (Belgium) and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories/CNL (Canada) and accounted for in the simulations over a three (mandatory) or six (optional) months period. Best estimate emissions of additional facilities (radiopharmaceutical production and nuclear research facilities, commercial reactors or relevant research reactors) of the Northern Hemisphere were included as well. Model results were compared with observed atmospheric activity concentrations at four International Monitoring System (IMS) stations located in Europe and North America with overall considerable influence of IRE and/or CNL emissions for evaluation of the participants’ runs. Participants were prompted to work with controlled and harmonized model set-ups to make runs more comparable, but also to increase diversity. It was found that using the stack emissions of IRE and CNL with daily resolution does not lead to better results than disaggregating annual emissions of these two facilities taken from the literature if an overall score for all stations covering all valid observed samples is considered. A moderate benefit of roughly 10% is visible in statistical scores for samples influenced by IRE and/or CNL to at least 50% and there can be considerable benefit for individual samples. Effects of transport errors, not properly characterized remaining emitters and long IMS sampling times (12–24 h) undoubtedly are in contrast to and reduce the benefit of high-quality IRE and CNL stack data. Complementary best estimates for remaining emitters push the scores up by 18% compared to just considering IRE and CNL emissions alone. Despite the efforts undertaken the full multi-model ensemble built is highly redundant. An ensemble based on a few arbitrary runs is sufficient to model the Xe-133 background at the stations investigated. The effective ensemble size is below five. An optimized ensemble at each station has on average slightly higher skill compared to the full ensemble. However, the improvement (maximum of 20% and minimum of 3% in RMSE) in skill is likely being too small for being exploited for an independent period.
A letter to the Journal of Chemical Education provided comments and accurate enumerations of isomers for sets of organic compounds discussed in the paper “Nomenclature, Chemical Abstracts Service numbers, isomer enumeration, ring strain, and stereochemistry: What does any of this have to do with an international chemical disarmament and nonproliferation treaty?”. This is a reply to that letter to address the comments and propose updates to the original paper in order to incorporate the accurate enumeration values.
This paper is intended to serve as a scientific basis to start discussions of the available environmental sampling techniques and equipment that have been used in the past that could be considered for use within the context of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on-site inspections (OSI). This work contains information on the techniques, equipment, costs, and some operational procedures associated with environmental sampling that have actually been used in the past by the United States for the detection of nuclear explosions. This paper also includes a discussion of issues, recommendations, and questions needing further study within the context of the sampling and analysis of aquatic materials, atmospheric gases, atmospheric particulates, vegetation, sediments and soils, fauna, and drill-back materials.
This set of slides provides an overview of the drivers and current state of technology for arms control treaty verification systems. This overview includes the definitions of “authentication,” “certification,” “attribute,” “template,” and “information barrier” as well as a discussion of first, second and third generation attribute measurement systems. We include examples of U.S./Russian interactions and conclude with discussion of the concepts of joint design and random selection.
The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at the DOE National Laboratories was established to ensure the scientific and technical vitality of these institutions and to enhance the their ability to respond to evolving missions and anticipate national needs. LDRD allows the Laboratory directors to invest a percentage of their total annual budget in cutting-edge research and development projects within their mission areas. We highlight a selected set of LDRD-funded projects, in chronological order, that have helped provide capabilities, people and infrastructure that contributed greatly to our ability to respond to technical challenges in support of test ban treaty verification and nonproliferation.
This report provides a short overview of the DNN R&D funded project SL12-Optlmg-PD2Nc, Optimal Imaging for Treaty Verification. The project began in FY12 and in FY15 is merging with a PNNL project to form the PL14-V-InfoBarrierimg-PD2Nc venture. The Project Description below provides the overall motivation and objectives for the project as well as a summary of programmatic direction. The most recent comprehensive technical report is referenced.
A study of aerosol filtration was conducted to improve U.S. Radionuclide Monitoring Station (RMS) performance for Nuclear Treaty Verification. The primary objectives of this study were to improve system operability and maintainability, reduce power consumption and operational cost, and reduce baseline radionuclide sensitivity. To meet these goals, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) studied the performance of alternate filter materials and aerosol collection technologies that could be engineered into U.S. Radionuclide Monitoring Stations. Laboratory-scale filtration experiments were conducted with Filter Material 1, FM1 (current filter), Filter Material 2, FM2, and Filter Material 3, FM3. All three materials employ electrostatically charged filter fibers to enhance nanoparticle collection. FM2 and FM3 both had higher air permeability with respect to FM1 which is advantageous for high volume collection and power savings. Particle pre-charging, a well-established industrial technique used in electrostatic precipitators, was tested to see if electrostatically charging particles prior to filtration could enhance filter performance. We found that particle-pre-charging did enhance aerosol collection efficiencies for materials which would not have otherwise satisfied RMS performance requirements. Laboratory-scale testing indicated it may be possible to reduce the baseline radionuclide sensitivity to approximately 60% of its current value by increasing the volume of air sampled in 24 hours to 2.5 times the current air volume. Improvements to geolocation may also be possible with shorter air samples (e.g., 12 hours). A new methodology was developed at SNL to assess filter performance using established RMS certification procedures. We coined these tests “mid-scale” since they bridged the gap between laboratory-scale and full-scale RMS testing. Four filter specimens were drawn from the exact same atmospheric aerosol. Gamma spectroscopy was used to assess radiological backgrounds due to radon progeny and other naturally occurring radionuclides. Direct comparisons between the four filters allowed SNL to quantify the relative change in baseline sensitivity by altering air flow rate, filter material, and particle-pre charging. Mid-scale results agreed with laboratory-scale results: alterations to RMS configuration (filter, flow, and particle charge) may result in baseline sensitivities approximately 55-60% of their current values. Finally, an assessment of scalability was performed to determine if technical approaches used in laboratory-scale and mid-scale testing could be engineered into full-scale Radionuclide Monitoring Stations. Results suggested that particle-pre-charging is a viable technical approach if reductions in baseline sensitivity or power consumption are desired.
CGSR hosted a two-day workshop to discuss the implications of the demise of the INF treaty for Indo-Pacific security. The workshop brought together more than 70 policy, security, diplomatic, and technical experts from the U.S., Northeast Asia, and Europe. Discussion was at the unclassified level.
Proposed treaty for banning weapons in space
Historical analysis of space treaty development
The neutron scatter camera was originally developed for a range of SNM detection applications. We are now exploring the feasibility of applications in treaty verification and warhead monitoring using experimentation, maximum likelihood estimation method (MLEM), detector optimization, and MCNP-PoliMi simulations.
PNNL operates the only certified laboratory in the U.S. for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty's International Monitoring System (IMS).
As nuclear warhead stockpiles are reduced under current and future arms treaties, accuracy in accountancy of material stockpiles becomes increasingly important. Image-based active interrogation offers advantages to spectroscopic detection in its ability to measure the location and extent of a material, or materials, of interest from a declaration. However, the detail that imaging provides is often viewed as too intrusive due to its potential to disseminate sensitive information. In this work, we present a method for reducing multi-energy, x-ray radiography data to a few important attributes, based on declarations from behind an information barrier, which can then be used to confirm or deny a declaration. We build on previous work by improving the physics modeling; considering currently attainable, multiple-endpoint x-ray systems; and posing the problem as a nonlinear, inverse problem. Regularization is added to the problem, which smooths the solution and stabilizes an otherwise unstable solution. Here we show the ability to discriminate high-atomic–number materials from others with simulated single-view multiple-endpoint radiography data and present results from initial bench-top measurements.