NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATIONNuclear Expertise Guides Global Nonproliferation Innovation

By Christopher J. Driver

Researchers tackling national security challenges at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are upholding an 80-year legacy of leadership in all things nuclear. Today, they’re developing the next generation of technologies that will help reduce global nuclear risk and enable safe, secure, peaceful use of nuclear materials worldwide.

ORNL’s rich history of nuclear technological innovation entered the record books on the morning of November 4, 1943, when the lab’s graphite reactor – the world’s first continually running nuclear reactor – went critical. The graphite reactor’s criticality represents a watershed moment in nuclear history, but internationally recognized breakthroughs in nuclear science and technology have continued to emerge at ORNL every decade since.

“This laboratory is truly unmatched in its legacy of nuclear discovery and innovation, and we’ve built impressive infrastructure over the years to support research and development across nuclear energy, medicine and nonproliferation,” said Cary Crawford, director of ORNL’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Division. “Today, we’re developing next-generation science and technology to understand advanced nuclear applications, to help move that science into practical application and then commercialize it, so we can better understand and mitigate any risks.”

As nuclear technology advances, additional challenges to the global nuclear nonproliferation regime arise in parallel. Meeting these challenges with innovative research often means designing new technologies with built-in safeguards that facilitate nonproliferation verification, furthering the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. 

Verification is the process – including open-source analysis, records auditing and facilities inspection – by which the IAEA offers assurances that among its many Member States, nuclear materials and technology are only used for peaceful, non-military purposes. 

International nuclear safeguards analysts and inspectors from the IAEA — working to verify that member states are meeting their contractual obligations to use nuclear technology peacefully, in accordance with the 1968 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) — need the most advanced detection technology available to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of their findings. Emerging technology at ORNL will help analysts and inspectors continue to detect nuclear anomalies efficiently, as global nuclear energy technology and applications advance, targeting factors that reveal potential for misuse or violation of international nuclear standards, which must be adhered to by every member state.