A new approach to the detection of concealed nuclear weapons and fissile material aboard cargo containerships is proposed. The ship-based approach removes the constraints of current thinking by addressing the threat of containerized nuclear terror in a novel way. Critical tactical misjudgments exist in currently deployed detection systems, which expose U.S. cities to an act of nuclear terrorism...

We present new results on neutron and gamma-ray pulse-height distributions (PHDs) measured with liquid scintillators from five plutonium-oxide samples of varying mass and burnup and a Cf isotopic source. We show that the analysis of the pulse-height distributions can be used to easily distinguish the fissile material (plutonium oxide) from the Cf source. Moreover, the slope of the measured puls...

When does a state become a ‘‘nuclear weapon state’’? How we choose to answer this question has significant implications for proliferation assessment, analysis, and policy. Traditionally, the standard demarcation line has been a state’s first nuclear test, but in recent years analysts have increasingly focused instead on the accumulation of a significant quantity (SQ) of fissile material. The ar...

Chemically ignited nuclear microexplosions with a fissile core, a DT reflector and U238 (Th232) pusher, offer a promising alternative to magnetic and inertial confinement fusion, not only burning DT, but in addition U238 (or Th232), and not depending on a large expensive laser of electric pulse power supply. The prize to be paid is a gram size amount of fissile material for each microexplosion,...

George Bunn, the first general counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, served on the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and later became a U.S. ambassador to the Geneva disarmament conference. He is now working on nuclear nonproliferation problems as a consulting professor at the Stanford University Center for International Se...

© 2008 American Institute of Physics, S-0031-9228-0809-020-0 The most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is the production of fissile material. One can either make plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor or enrich uranium to increase the abundance of its fissile isotope uranium-235. Historically, enrichment has been the more obscure of the two routes, but the recent spread of one technology...

Energy spectra of antineutrinos coming from 232Th and 233U neutroninduced fission are calculated, relevant inverse beta decay ν̄e + p → n+e+ positron spectra and total cross sections are found. This study is stimulated by a hypothesis that a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction is burning at the center of the Earth (“Georeactor”). The Georeactor, according to the authors of this idea, provides ...

Todd Perry is Washington Representative for Arms Control and International Security for the Union of Concerned Scientists, and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. Economic conditions in Russia in the wake of the August 17, 1998 devaluation of the Russian ruble have substantially increased the risk of theft at the dozens of former Soviet ...

The so called Innovative Options, within the field of nuclear fission systems, promise radical improvements in the fuel cycle with regard to waste disposal, non-proliferation and the possibility of severe accidents. In particular, new systems based on the use of accelerators and thorium [1,2,3] have been proposed for nuclear power production and waste incineration. In this paper we consider pot...