How can we ensure that, during nuclear disarmament, the dismantled objects are genuine warheads and not cleverly produced hoaxes presented by the nuclear-armed state while hiding its true arsenal? The feasibility of such hoax objects and the ability of current verification technologies to detect them has been widely debated. Christopher Fichtlscherer and Moritz Kütt from the Research areaArms Control and New Technologies have published the article "Uniqueness, Reproducibility and Discrimination of Nuclear Warhead Gamma Signatures" in the Journal of Science and Global Security addressing this issue. They present various theoretical warhead emission models and analyze potential hoax objects that could deceive certain verification technologies. Their findings highlight weaknesses in existing verification systems and suggest ways to improve them.
Christopher Fichtlscherer, Moritz Kütt: Uniqueness, Reproducibility and Discrimination of Nuclear Warhead Gamma Signatures: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08929882.2024.2387966