A system for the detection of concealed nuclear weapons and fissile material aboard cargo cotainerships

A new approach to the detection of concealed nuclear weapons and fissile material aboard cargo containerships is proposed. The ship-based approach removes the constraints of current thinking by addressing the threat of containerized nuclear terror in a novel way. Critical tactical misjudgments exist in currently deployed detection systems, which expose U.S. cities to an act of nuclear terrorism. Current port-based systems position defenses within the perimeter of each coastal city and the assumption that terrorists would not remotely detonate the weapon while taxiing past urban areas en route to the port is irrational. The new approach protects this hole in national security by moving defenses outside the perimeter and onto the containership. A networked system of radiation detectors, aboard all inbound containerships, does not allow a concealed nuclear weapon to ever approach the U.S. homeland. This thesis describes the ship-based system in detail, outlines its capabilities and suggests possible deployment scenarios. The basic concept of the ship-based system is to hide detectors in empty standard 40-foot shipping containers and send them back and forth across the ocean alongside normal cargo. Containerized arrays of gamma and neutron detectors are linked to small data processing and transmitting devices.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Gallagher, Shawn P., S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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/1721.1/34451

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34451