大学领导新的核监测联盟 —— 密歇根日报
来源：https://www.michigandaily.com/news/university-joins-consortium-monitor-nuclear-arms
标签：新闻，CVT，验证技术联盟
收藏：株野
作者：Tom McBrien
日期：2014/04/09
马里兰大学从能源部获得了2500万美元的拨款，以领导13个大学财团改进核材料的监测技术，开发检测秘密核试验的新方法，分析当前的防扩散努力并培训该领域的下一代专家。
工程副教授Sara Pozzi被选为该计划的主任，该计划被称为验证技术中心。
波兹说：“核武器确实存在威胁。” “有些国家正在试图发展公开甚至秘密的核武器计划。恐怖分子还有可能获得和使用核武器。这些是相互关联的问题，因此财团将解决这些重大问题。”
1970年生效的《核不扩散条约》具有三个主要原则：当前核国家的裁军，非核国家的不扩散以及所有国家追求和平核能的权利。在世界195个国家中，有190个签署了该条约。印度，以色列，巴基斯坦，南苏丹和朝鲜于2003年退出，这是一个明显的例外。
该中心将监测这些国家以及已签署该条约的国家，并研究核爆炸影响的地球物理模型。秘密的地下核试验导致地面震动，而震动不同于地震。新的研究可以帮助诸如国际原子能机构之类的机构检测到这些具体的地球物理特征，从而警告他们一个国家正在进行非法试验。
《核不扩散条约》的另一个重要部门将允许各国在不发展核武器的情况下追求核能。但是，监视核材料以确保其不富集weapons级，铀233和铀235等武器级形式，目前是一项耗时且昂贵的企业，依赖于迅速消失的材料。
当前的探测系统依赖一种叫做氦3的材料，这种材料越来越稀有，因为它主要是作为制造核武器的副产品而制造的。该中心的研究人员希望建立新的探测系统，该系统依靠中子的特定发射（构成原子的小颗粒）来探测富集的放射性物质。
研究人员还表示，他们希望这项新技术将使检查员无需打开容器即可监视核材料，这是一种更安全，更快，更容易且更便宜的替代方案。
地震测试和验证系统只是该中心重点关注的一部分。作为该项目的首席科学家，工程学教授David Wehe负责定义“重大挑战”并促进跨学科合作。
“这是一项艰巨的任务，因为CVT涉及地震学，辐射检测，次声，光学，卫星传感和图像，情报收集，大数据挖掘和政策，” Wehe在一封电子邮件采访中写道。“ CVT试图在这些不同领域进行直接研究，以满足一个任务领域：核查。”
Pozzi说，大学是领导该财团的绝佳选择，因为它在核和放射学研究领域拥有卓越的历史。
“密歇根州拥有美国第一个核工程计划，”波兹说。“我们有一些核辐射探测的创始者。其中一位是格伦·诺尔（Glenn Knoll）教授，他现在是名誉教授，他将担任我的顾问委员会的成员。”
University to lead new nuclear monitoring coalition
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By Tom McBrien, Daily Staff Reporter
Published April 9, 2014
Few scenarios are more terrifying than the possibility of a nuclear war or terror attack. But thanks to a federal grant, the University is leading a consortium that will develop cutting-edge technology and methods for nonproliferation efforts in the U.S. and worldwide.
The University received a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy to lead the 13-university consortium in improving technologies for monitoring nuclear materials, developing new methods to detect secret nuclear tests, analyzing current nonproliferation efforts and training the next generation of experts in the field.
Engineering Associate Prof. Sara Pozzi has been selected as the director of the program, which is called the Center for Verification Technologies.
“There are threats from nuclear weapons that are real,” Pozzi said. “There are nations that are trying to develop overt, or even covert, nuclear weapons programs. There’s also the possibility that terrorists might acquire and use nuclear weapons. And these are interrelated problems, so the consortium will address these big issues.”
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970, has three major tenets: disarmament by current nuclear countries, nonproliferation for non-nuclear countries and the right of all countries to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. Of the world’s 195 countries, 190 have signed the treaty. Notable exceptions are India, Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan and North Korea, which withdrew in 2003.
The Center will monitor these countries, as well as nations that have signed the treaty, and look at geophysical models of the effects of nuclear explosions. Secret underground nuclear tests cause shaking in the ground that has a different signature than earthquakes. New research could help agencies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, detect these specific geophysical signatures, alerting them that a country is conducting illegal tests.
Another important arm of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will allow nations to pursue nuclear energy without developing nuclear weapons. But monitoring nuclear material to ensure that it is not enriched into weapons-grade forms such as plutonium, uranium-233 and uranium-235 is currently a time-intensive and costly enterprise that relies on quickly disappearing materials.
Current detection systems rely on a material called helium-3, which is growing increasingly rare because it was manufactured largely as a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing. Researchers from the Center hope to create new detection systems that rely on specific emissions of neutrons — small particles that make up atoms — to detect enriched radioactive material.
Researchers also said they hope the new technology would enable inspectors to monitor nuclear material without opening containers — a much safer, faster, easier and less expensive alternative.
Seismological testing and verification systems are only a part of what the Center will focus on. As the chief scientist of the project, Engineering Prof. David Wehe is in charge of defining the “Grand Challenges” and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
“This is a daunting task because the CVT engages seismology, radiation detection, infrasound, optics, satellite sensing and imagery, intelligence gathering, big data mining, and policy,” Wehe wrote in an e-mail interview. “CVT seeks to direct research in these diverse fields to meet a single mission area: nuclear verification.”
Pozzi said the University is a great choice to lead the consortium due to its history of excellence in nuclear and radiological studies.
“Michigan had the first nuclear engineering program in the nation,” Pozzi said. “We had some of the founding fathers of nuclear radiation detection. One of them is Prof. Glenn Knoll, who is now an emeritus professor, and he will be sitting on my advisory board.”