Weapon Storage Technology Demonstration Facility

The goals of the Weapon Storage Technology Demonstration Facility is to (1) improve monitoring of weapons storage facility security status, (2) to improve detection of unauthorized access into the storage facilities, and (3) enhance inventory accounting of weapons in storage. The All-Russian Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA, Moscow), with the support of Sandia National Laboratories has established the Weapon Storage Technology Demonstration Facility (STDF) and is currently using the test bed to evaluate various technologies for ensuring the safety and security of hazardous item storage. The test bed is composed of a simulated storage facility and a remote (15km) monitoring facility. The STDF is used to test various combinations of components and subsystems and to demonstrate the operational performance of such devises before deployed to storage sites. The STDF facility has the flexibility and capacity to test a variety of systems in different configurations. As a \"handson\" laboratory, the STDF is designed to meet a wide range of operational needs for storing a variety of hazardous items including radioactive explosive materials. It is particularly applicable to testing the integration of technical devices with operations procedures used at storage facilities. In the future, the STDF will be used as tested for demonstrating various technologies related to disarmament, transparency during dismantlement, and the spectrum of arms control technical issues. In particular, VNIIA is adapting warhead authentication technologies using the gamma spectroscopy equipment with secure information capabilities for characterizing material type and quantity in storage containers. Advanced non-nuclear techniques are also being investigated and tested at the STDF. These techniques include enhanced tags, seals, x-ray graphics, and ultrasonic methods. The test bed is equipped for conducting tests with pulsed power and constant radiation sources (neutron, x-ray generators, isotopic sources, etc.) for the purposes of container/cargo characterization. VNIIA invites other Russian institutes, the European Institutes, and the US National Laboratories to take advantage of the Weapon Storage Technology Demonstration Facility in Moscow. This facility has been designed as a multi-program testing facility and is prepared to host the testing of a full spectrum of storage technologies in a simulated operational storage environment.