Working Group 3, co-chaired by Sweden and the United States, sought to identify solutions for key technical challenges related to monitoring nuclear disarmament. Specifically, the group was tasked with the development of a chain of custody (CoC) paper, presentation, or demonstration involving unique identification and tamper-indicating devices in a specific environment, such as a mock warhead storage area. By the term CoC, the Working Group referred to technologies that can be used to establish and maintain the integrity and/or identification of objects for as long as stipulated.
Several presentations of such technologies were given, first during a February 2016 Working Group meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and then later in May 2016 during a Working Group meeting hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy. These presentations and subsequent in-depth discussions on CoC technologies, resulted in Working Group 3’s Chain of Custody Technologies Mapping Table with references to more detailed technology papers on each potential technology. The CoC technologies were divided into three categories: Surveillance, Containment, and Identification.
Final Papers
You can download the presentations and CoC technology papers here.
- Summary Document
- Chain of Custody Technologies Mapping Table
- Mobile Change Detection System, NNSA, February 2016
- Radiation-proof Passive RFID, Hirofumi Tomikawa and Yoshiki Kimura, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, February 2016
- Unattended Measurement System (UMS), Hirofumi Tomikawa and Yoshiki Kimura, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, February 2016
- 3D Technologies for Nuclear Safeguards Verification, E. Wolfart, JRC-ITU-Ispra, May 2016
- JRC Electronic Seal – JES, May 2016
- Ultrasonic Optical Sealing Bolt (UOSB), May 2016
- JRC CANDU Sealing System (JCSS), May 2016
- Ultrasonic Seals Basics, May 2016
Supporting Background Documents
More information on each CoC technology is available in the following supporting background technology data sheets:
- 3D Facility Verification and Change Detection Technology
- 3D Identification and Containment Technology
- 3D Surveillance Technology
- Accelerometers
- Radiation Detection Technology
- Tamper Indicating Seals and Enclosures Technology
- Container Integrity Assessment Technology
- Optical Change Detection Technology
- RFID Technology Data Sheet
- UID Technology Data Sheet
(Image photo credit: Dean Calma / IAEA)