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Brain Science and International Nuclear Safeguards: Implications from Cognitive Science and Human Factors Research on the Provision and Use of Safeguards-Relevant Information in the Field

ESARDA Bulletin

Gastelum, Zoe N.; Matzen, Laura E.; Smartt, Heidi A.; Horak, Karl E.; Moyer, Eric M.; St Pierre, M.E.

Today’s international nuclear safeguards inspectors have access to an increasing volume of supplemental information about the facilities under their purview, including commercial satellite imagery, nuclear trade data, open source information, and results from previous safeguards activities. In addition to completing traditional in-field safeguards activities, inspectors are now responsible for being able to act upon this growing corpus of supplemental safeguards-relevant data and for maintaining situational awareness of unusual activities taking place in their environment. However, cognitive science research suggests that maintaining too much information can be detrimental to a user’s understanding, and externalizing information (for example, to a mobile device) to reduce cognitive burden can decrease cognitive function related to memory, navigation, and attention. Given this dichotomy, how can international nuclear safeguards inspectors better synthesize information to enhance situational awareness, decision making, and performance in the field? This paper examines literature from the fields of cognitive science and human factors in the areas of wayfinding, situational awareness, equipment and technical assistance, and knowledge transfer, and describes the implications for the provision of, and interaction with, safeguards-relevant information for international nuclear safeguards inspectors working in the field.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2017
OSTIScopus

Enhancing Safeguards Analysts’ Geospatial Usage

Bleakly, Denise; Horak, Karl E.; Mcdaniel, Michael

This report is the final summation of Sandia‘s Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project #151316, "Open Source Information Verification" (OSIV) which ran from FY11 through FY12. The aim of OSIV was to research, develop, and evaluate relevant geospatial analysis capabilities that address open-source information needs for international safeguards. OSIV generated a number of technical, programmatic, and cultural advances, detailed in this report. There were new methodological insights and research that resulted in ten publications and presentations; this report concludes with an abstract-annotated listing of all materials. OSIV generated a substantial prototype, GeoSafeguards, that not only achieved its intended goal of testing our hypothesis, but which also served as a vehicle for customer education and program development. OSIV, as intended, has catalyzed future work in this domain; by the end of two years, it has already brought considerable attention to this work both domestically and with our international partners. Finally, the OSIV project knit together previously disparate research staff and user expertise in a fashion that not only addressed our immediate research goals, which has created cross- understanding, in service of Sandia‘s national security responsibilities in safeguards and nonproliferation.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2012
DOIOSTI
Results 1–25 of 40
Results 1–25 of 40