Hypothesis Testing: Frequentist Versus Bayesian With Examples from Nuclear Safeguards

Bayesian data analysis continues to gain popularity, largely due toeffective adaptation of Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the purposeof numerically investigating features of the posterior probabilitiesof interest. In nuclear safeguards, Bayesian approaches areoccasionally advocated. This paper provides a simple explanationof the Bayesian approach, illustrates its possible use on examplenuclear safeguards analyses, and discusses the controversy surroundingits use on other nuclear safeguards analyses.