Nuclear safeguards: 2. The US program

NOV 01, 1969

Protection of fissionable materials becomes increasingly a problem as private nuclear industry grows. Physicists can help the safeguards program by developing improved materials‐analysis methods.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3035253

William A. Higinbotham

THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM of nuclear safeguards is that of ensuring, so far as possible, that significant amounts of nuclear materials do not become lost, strayed or stolen, and to do so without interfering unnecessarily with free enterprise and at a price that the nation can reasonably afford. In the US responsibility lies largely with the Atomic Energy Commission, in its Office of Safeguards and Materials Management (OSMM) and its Division of Nuclear Materials Safeguards (DNMS). Physicists are contributing to the safeguards program by perfecting the technical means to carry out policy.

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References

1. R. F. Lumb, Chairman; Ad Hoc Advisory Panel on “Safeguarding Special Nuclear Material”; transmitted to the USAEC 10 March, 1967.
2. N. S. Beyer, R. B. Perry, R. W. Brandenberg, L. K. Hurst; Proc. 10th Annual Meeting of Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, May 1969 (to be published).
3. ANS Transactions, 11, 2, 658–683 (1968).
4. Research and Development for Safeguards, AEC‐WASH‐1122, (1968).

More about the authors

William A. Higinbotham, Brookhaven National Laboratory.