JOINT MEASUREMENTS WITH NUCLEAR MATERIALS IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (NMIS)

Technologies being examined for possible use in monitoring nuclear warhead reductions under a bilateral transparency regime are radiation detection equipment used as tools during monitoring visits to confirm the absence or presence of fissile materials in shipping containers or actual weapons systems. Potential concerns with the use of radiation detection equipment are usability and the non-intrusiveness of their use. Under a Warhead Dismantlement Lab-to-Lab contract between Oak Ridge (the Y-12 Plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL]) and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF), an active neutron interrogation system, developed by ORNL called the Nuclear Material Identification System (NMIS), was manufactured by both U.S. and Russian laboratory personnel for joint testing in Russia. VNIIEF scientists were trained in its functions and operation, and a system was assembled at VNIIEF. The first of two phases of joint radiation measurements have been made at VNIIEF on unclassified thirty-six percent enriched uranium and plutonium components. Preliminary plans are underway to complete joint measurements on other unclassified un-alloyed highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium components. At the conclusion of these joint measurements, VNIIEF will prepare a report assessing the NMIS joint experiments and recommendations to modify the system.