Antineutrinos and Nonproliferation

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(Pacific)
Reuben W. Hills Conference Room
Speaker: 
  • Adam Bernstein

Abstract: 50 years of fundamental antineutrino detection experiments at nuclear reactors have laid the groundwork for a  new discipline, Applied Antineutrino Physics. Our LLNL/SNL team has successfully demonstrated the utility of antineutrino detectors for cooperative monitoring of the operational status, power, and fissile content of reactors, non-intrusively and in real time. These capabilities are relevant for global nonproliferation and nuclear materials control regimes, especially IAEA reactor safeguards. In addition, many facets of the detector science overlap with needs for next generation dark matter and neutrino experiments. I will discuss results of our several successful deployments of prototype cooperative monitoring antineutrino detectors, and the intersection of this work with nuclear science and particle astrophysics.

Dr. Adam Bernstein leads the Advanced Detectors Group in the Physics Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He works on the development of radiation detectors for applications in nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear arms control, and on detector development for fundamental physics experiments. He received his B.A. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Experimental High Energy Physics from Columbia University. He has pioneered the use of cubic meter scale detectors as a practical means for non-intrusive real-time measurement of changes in the plutonium content of operating reactors. Bernstein has also developed large-scale liquid scintillator detectors for improved passive and active detection of Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium. In 2005, Discover Magazine cited Bernstein's and co-investigators' work on rapid detection of fissile material in cargo as one of the top hundred most significant scientific stories of the year. He is a member of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search experiment, an international collaboration which will directly measure or place the world's most stringent limit on the mass and coupling of a theoretically favored class of dark matter particle, known as the  Weakly Interacting Massive Particle or WIMP.

If you would like to be added to the email announcement list, please visit https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/stsseminar