Conveners
Oral Session #4 – International Cooperation and Exercises
- Chris Cochrane (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission)
The Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG) recently completed its sixth Collaborative Materials Exercise (CMX-6) – Operation Celestial Skónis. This latest CMX also represented the largest exercise on record in the 25-year history of the ITWG and included participation by 22 laboratories and 15 law enforcement (LE) agencies from 21 countries and one multinational...
Introduction
The need for joint investigations of seized radioactive samples by both NRM specialists and forensic experts, who study these samples using traditional forensic techniques is no longer in doubt. However, the most significant steps in identifying the problems arising from the interaction of specialists from different scientific schools and different departments, in finding ways...
There are a large number of radiation-hazardous objects of different types located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan: the sites of nuclear testing, research activities and nuclear power plants, the uranium- and oil- mining and processing plants. The large volumes involved with the shipments and transfer of nuclear and radioactive materials in Kazakhstan cause serious risks of...
Since the first Collaborative Materials Exercise (CMX) organized by the NF-ITWG in 1999, the CEA participated to the whole series, including to the last one to date, CMX-7, during fall 2021. During these couple of decades, the panel of techniques and number of people implemented by CEA, representing France in the CMX exercise, have increased with the broadening of the scenarios. In that way,...
The science of spectrometry is well established but the method of doing the actual analysis can be varied based on instrumentation available and software used. This skill set is key across a range of applications in nuclear security – from an initial detection through material characterization. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling...
The Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) in Romania is participating in a joint sample analysis with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on a set of legacy high enriched uranium (HEU) materials that have been under safeguards at the IFIN-HH for many decades.
Initiated in 2019 as part of larger...
