Radiation detectionNew radiation detectors developed at Sandia used for New START inspections

Published 5 February 2018

Sandia National Laboratories designed, tested, and delivered new radiation detection equipment for monitoring under the New START Treaty. Defense Threat Reduction Agency inspectors recently used this equipment for the first time in Russia for a New START inspection. New START, or the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, is a treaty between the United States and Russia that, among other limits, reduces the deployed nuclear warheads on both sides to 1,550 by 5 February. These limits will be maintained for as long as the treaty remains in force. The treaty includes regular on-site inspections of warheads and delivery systems.

Sandia National Laboratories designed, tested, and delivered new radiation detection equipment for monitoring under the New START Treaty. Defense Threat Reduction Agency inspectors recently used this equipment for the first time in Russia for a New START inspection.

New START, or the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, is a treaty between the United States and Russia that, among other limits, reduces the deployed nuclear warheads on both sides to 1,550 by 5 February. These limits will be maintained for as long as the treaty remains in force. The treaty includes regular on-site inspections of warheads and delivery systems. These inspections require measurements of objects declared non-nuclear to confirm that they are non-nuclear. Specific neutron-detecting equipment is defined in the treaty for this confirmation.

Sandia Lab says that the first generation of this equipment was designed by Sandia in the late 1980s. It was originally developed for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to discriminate between intermediate-range missiles that were prohibited by the treaty and strategic-range missiles that were not prohibited. The first-generation equipment was later approved for START and New START inspections, where the purpose was different but the measurements were the same.

The latest version of the radiation detection equipment is lighter, more rugged and designed to be more sustainable into the future than the original generation of equipment. Just imagine trying to maintain a 30-year-old Walkman in a smartphone world.

“A viable long-term solution” for treaty verification
“It was getting to the point where the team was calling up retired vendors to see if they still had spare parts to repair the old equipment. That wasn’t a viable long-term solution,” said Dianna Blair, senior manager for Sandia’s nuclear security and nonproliferation group.

For equipment designed to last as long as the original equipment, it is important that it be rugged, robust and produce reliable results.