Systems-based analysis of a ship borne approach for the detection of fissile material concealed in cargo containers

The international maritime container trade, which imports an average of 19,000 largely uninspected cargo containers to United States ports each day, has been identified as a potential avenue of attack for nuclear terrorism. Currently envisioned and deployed defensive measures that seek to detect and interdict concealed fissile material once containers have already reached a U.S. port do not adequately protect against nuclear threats due to the unique power and range of nuclear weapon effects. This thesis describes and examines a novel "ship-based" approach to container-borne fissile material detection where suites of radiation detectors with imaging capabilities are enclosed in standard, non-descript cargo containers and shipped in limited numbers aboard commercial containerships. Outfitted with communication hardware, these dedicated containerized units could provide crucial advance detection and notification of an inbound nuclear threat while the danger is still safely removed from U.S. shores. Attributes of the container shipping trade that would impact the performance and viability of the proposed ship-based approach were identified and investigated.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Broderick, Brett P

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard C. Lanza.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33636

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33636