The joint (virtual) annual meeting of the European Safeguards Research and Development Association (ESARDA) and the U.S. Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) was held from August 23 to September 1. The meeting was titled "Advancing Together: Innovation and Resilience in Nuclear Materials Management". The conference is one of the most significant scientific events of its kind in nuclear monitoring and verification, with nearly 1000 participants this year.
Moritz Kütt and Christopher Fichtlscherer from the Research Department Arms Control and New Technologies were involved in five contributions. In cooperation with scientists from RWTH Aachen University and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, two articles were written on the first results of the DSF-funded project "Warhead Authentication via Gamma and Neutron Emissions: How can fraud be prevented in the process?", which started a few months ago at IFSH. Another contribution presented simulations of procedures with which the presence or absence of nuclear weapons could be detected.
In cooperation with scientists from Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the USA, Moritz Kütt was also involved in an article dealing with developing a robotic system that will support human inspectors in their work. Christopher Fichtlscherer cooperated with scientists at Harvard and Princeton University in developing a method to detect violations of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.