USING TARGETED SOCIAL MEDIA TO LOCATE ORPHANED RADIOLOGICAL SOURCES: RESULTS OF A PILOT STUDY IN MOLDOVA

Locating and securing orphan radioactive sources are oft-overlooked problems in nuclear materials management. To address these challenges, the IAEA has identified several strategies for locating radioactive sources outside of regulatory control. These include both administrative and physical searches, with the possibility of incorporating information from a variety of government, industry, and public sources. However, little attention has been given to the possibility of employing new tools, such as social media and other open source online information, in orphan source recovery efforts. This paper reports on a pilot project using these new tools to aid in the identification and recovery of orphan sources in the Republic of Moldova in Eastern Europe. Drawing on a concept prepared by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) for the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, and with support from the Skoll Global Threats Fund, CNS researchers partnered with the Moldovan National Agency for the Regulation of Nuclear and Radiological Activities (NARNRA) to identify current and former employees of facilities suspected of using or handling radioactive sources during the Soviet era. Using a list of priority facilities provided by NARNRA, CNS performed background research on each facility, mined social media communities for current and former employees, and built a database to store the resulting information. CNS then used network analysis tools to find the people most likely to have information on multiple facilities, and designed a structured interview to help NARNRA maximize its contacts. Although the project is ongoing, current results have already demonstrated the usefulness of new tools for orphan source recovery. Information from the CNS-developed database has helped NARNRA focus its limited resources, and NARNRA has used the structured interview to ensure consistent information collection. As a result of this collaborative project, NARNRA has both located sources previously outside of regulatory custody and confirmed and expanded its knowledge of sources already in regulatory custody.