Vol. 52, No. 3        February 11, 2000

Arms control verification, sensors, and monitoring systems

DOE's nuclear material protection, control, and accounting (MPC&A) program secures weapons-usable nuclear material in Russia. Several Sandia MPC&A projects reached a number of milestones this year. See the next entries:

• The Truck Transportation Security Project provided 39 vehicles to greatly enhance the security in inter- and intra-site transportation of special nuclear material in Russia. (5300, 5800)

• 18 months ago Sandia began a 16-month, $6 million security upgrade where the Russian Navy stores nuclear fuel. Sandia led a team of six experts from DOE laboratories in securing the naval nuclear fuel. (5300, 5800)

• At Mayak, a major nuclear material production and processing facility in Russia, an additional 2,760 canisters of PuO2 were placed under one-ton, steel-clad, steel-reinforced, access-delay blocks -- bringing the total to 5,010 canisters (a total of 15.03 metric tonnes) under improved protection. (5300, 5800)

• The Rail Transportation Security Project addresses the risk posed by shipments of nuclear material over 90,000 km of Russian rail between approximately 25 sites spread across 11 time zones. The project recently deployed rapid upgrades on 33 railcars to provide security overpacks, intrusion sensors, and communications. (5300)

A Sandia team successfully designed and produced a vehicle tracking system for convoy vehicles at Minot Air Force Base, N.D. Called STORC, for Satellite Tracking of Re-entry Vehicle Convoys, the system offers encrypted tracking, messaging, and image transmission capabilities for base convoy operations. The delivered prototype system will be used for evaluation in Minot. The US Air Force Space Battlelab sponsored the project. (5800) (NP/MCSBU)

An ultra-low-power (25 mW), ultra-small (2.5 in3), gamma-radiation spectrometer was demonstrated on a small, radio-frequency security sensor platform by the Integrated Nuclear Materials Monitoring (INuMM) Program in July 1999. This technology allows for the long-term monitoring of gamma-radiation spectra using a small, battery-powered sensor platform. An INuMM-based, gamma radiation spectrometer has been used to demonstrate the continuous monitoring of spectra of nuclear warheads stored in containers. (2300, 2200, 8300, 1700, 5300, 8400) (NWSBU)

Groundbreaking collaborative projects were established in South Asia and the Middle East by the Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC). Israeli and Palestinian scientists built a monitoring network to collect and share meteorological and ecological data. India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh researchers collected and exchanged data on river water quality. These collaborations on sustainable resources build confidence, improve political relations, and reduce the potential for conflict. (5300) (NP/MCSBU)

We developed and successfully demonstrated data and command authentication technologies for preventing alteration of data produced from remote sites associated with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization's (CTBTO) International Monitoring System (IMS). We also demonstrated an authentication key management technique acceptable to the CTBTO for authenticating data from IMS sites. (5700) (NP/MCSBU)

The Warhead Monitoring Technology Project is a multi-year effort to understand the role of monitoring technologies in implementing potential nuclear warhead arms control agreements. Working with DoD and DOE, we developed a monitoring scenario to initialize and maintain continuity of knowledge of a large number of warheads declared excess as they passed through the multi-year process of storage and transportation terminating with dismantlement. An integrated system of Sandia-developed item- and facility-monitoring technologies fielded in a bunker are now being evaluated against this arms control scenario. (5300, 5800, 5900, 2200, 8100, 8400, 6200) (NP/MCSBU)

In collaboration with Russian physicians at Chelyabinsk-70 and physicians in three rural New Mexico hospitals, Sandia has completed an extensive survey to understand the prevalence of Hepatitis C and the risk factors responsible for spread of the disease. Using only Internet-based telecommunications, Russian physicians and their counterparts at Los Alamos Hospital, Gerald Champion Hospital in Alamagordo and Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, N.M., found not only a much higher prevalence of the disease than ever before published, but identified several novel risk factors as well. (5300) (NP/MCSBU)

Reduced personnel radiation exposure and reduced inspection costs are the primary benefits of a Materials Monitoring System (MMS) with T-1 fiber-optic container seals delivered by Sandia to Savannah River Site K-Area Materials Storage (KAMS). KAMS will store until final disposition excess plutonium metal and oxide shipped from Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in a DOE green field project. MMS will be used for domestic material surveillance beginning January 2000 and for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards beginning June 2000, under the US-Russia-IAEA trilateral initiative. (5300, 2200) (NP/MCSBU)

Monitoring Systems & Technology Center 5700 delivered the twenty-first Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System (NDS) payload for the Global Positioning System (GPS) Block IIR satellites in June 1999 -- several months ahead of schedule. This payload plays a crucial role in the global detection, location, and reporting of NUDETs using sensors on the 24-satellite GPS constellation. Sandia is the systems integrator for the design, integration, and test of the NDS payload. (5700) (NP/MCSBU)

In December, Sandia's first full satellite, the Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI), was delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for launch in February 2000. The DOE/NN-20 project will advance the state-of-the-art in multispectral and thermal imaging and associated technologies. Re- searchers at Sandia, Los Alamos, Savannah River, and some 50 other government agencies will compare data collected by MTI to ground truth simultaneously collected from instrumented sites to better understand the technology and its use for a broad range of national defense and civilian applications. (5700) (NP/MCSBU)

Last modified: February 28, 2000

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