Page 2 – Research

International nuclear safeguards inspectors visit nuclear facilities to assess their compliance with international nonproliferation agreements. Inspectors note whether anything unusual is happening in the facility that might indicate the diversion or misuse of nuclear materials, or anything that changed since the last inspection. They must complete inspections under restrictions imposed by their hosts, regarding both their use of technology or equipment and time allotted. Moreover, because inspections are sometimes completed by different teams months apart, it is crucial that their notes accurately facilitate change detection across a delay. The current study addressed these issues by investigating how note-taking methods (e.g., digital camera, hand-written notes, or their combination) impacted memory in a delayed recall test of a complex visual array. Participants studied four arrays of abstract shapes and industrial objects using a different note-taking method for each, then returned 48–72Â h later to complete a memory test using their notes to identify objects changed (e.g., location, material, orientation). Accuracy was highest for both conditions using a camera, followed by hand-written notes alone, and all were better than having no aid. Although the camera-only condition benefitted study times, this benefit was not observed at test, suggesting drawbacks to using just a camera to aid recall. Change type interacted with note-taking method; although certain changes were overall more difficult, the note-taking method used helped mitigate these deficits in performance. Finally, elaborative hand-written notes produced better performance than simple ones, suggesting strategies for individual note-takers to maximize their efficacy in the absence of a digital aid.

More Details

TYPE Conference Poster YEAR 2019

Scopus OSTI DOI

The Impact of Information Presentation on Visual Inspection Performance in the International Nuclear Safeguards Domain

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Matzen, Laura E.; Stites, Mallory C.; Smartt, Heidi A.; Gastelum, Zoe N.

International nuclear safeguards inspectors are tasked with verifying that nuclear materials in facilities around the world are not misused or diverted from peaceful purposes. They must conduct detailed inspections in complex, information-rich environments, but there has been relatively little research into the cognitive aspects of their jobs. We posit that the speed and accuracy of the inspectors can be supported and improved by designing the materials they take into the field such that the information is optimized to meet their cognitive needs. Many in-field inspection activities involve comparing inventory or shipping records to other records or to physical items inside of a nuclear facility. The organization and presentation of the records that the inspectors bring into the field with them could have a substantial impact on the ease or difficulty of these comparison tasks. In this paper, we present a series of mock inspection activities in which we manipulated the formatting of the inspectors’ records. We used behavioral and eye tracking metrics to assess the impact of the different types of formatting on the participants’ performance on the inspection tasks. The results of these experiments show that matching the presentation of the records to the cognitive demands of the task led to substantially faster task completion.

More Details

TYPE Conference Poster YEAR 2019

Scopus OSTI DOI

Maintaining Continuity of Knowledge on Nuclear Waste Destined for Geological Repositories. A Case Study of Plutonium Shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Haddal, Risa H.; Finch, Robert F.; Smartt, Heidi A.

This study examines methods that can help maximize confidence in maintaining Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) on plutonium-bearing wastes, from a final safeguards-verification measurement through emplacement underground. The study identifies Containment and Surveillance (C/S) measures that can be applied during packaging of plutonium wastes at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, USA, through shipment to, and receipt and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA. Results of this study could apply to countries with a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) that plan to dispose in a geological repository plutonium or other non-fuel nuclear materials that are under international safeguards.

More Details

TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2018

OSTI DOI

Effective Access Monitoring at Geological Repositories --A Systems Study

Finch, Robert F.; Smartt, Heidi A.; Haddal, Risa H.

Abstract not provided.

More Details

TYPE Conference Poster YEAR 2018

OSTI

Energy Harvesting RMSA Field Test

Smartt, Heidi A.

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is investigating photovoltaic (PV) cell configurations, integrating them with the battery-operated Remotely Monitored Sealing Array (RMSA), and testing and evaluating performance for enhanced battery life under various environmental conditions at the K-Area Material Storage (KAMS) facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Unattended safeguards equipment (e.g. seals) incorporates many low-power electronic circuits, which are often powered by expensive and environmentally toxic lithium batteries. These batteries must periodically be replaced, adding a radiological hazard for both safeguards inspectors and operators. An extended field test of these prototype PV energy harvesting (EH) RMSAs at an operational nuclear facility will give additional data and allow for an analysis of this technology in a variety of realistic conditions, which will be documented in a final report. RMSAs are used for this testing, but SNL envisions energy harvesting technology may be applicable to other safeguards equipment.

More Details

TYPE Other Report YEAR 2018

OSTI DOI