This book originated from our involvement in the development of this hybrid discipline from its earliest days. During the early 1990s, when the smuggling of nuclear materials was first becoming a reality, we developed and adapted analytic tools based on first-principles nuclear science and an understanding of the stadards of forensic science.
Nuclear forensic analysis (or nuclear forensics) is an example of such a new discipline. Certain nuclear forensic techniques have been used for many years in isolated applications, including: * IAEA safeguards system verifying compliance with the treaty’s prohibitions on the manufacture of a nuclear weapon by a non-nuclear weapon state; * Enforcement of controls on the transfer of nuclear mat…