Research Methods

For our technical work, we exploit computational science and artificial intelligence (AI) for modelling and analysis. Simulations of the nuclear fuel cycle are essential for designing verification approaches. Our group's physics laboratory is equipped with modern read-out electronics, manufacturing tools and radiation sources to study gamma, neutron, antineutrino, and muon detectors that can measure and characterise nuclear material and nuclear facility operations. Political scientists contribute to an integrated research design spanning natural and social sciences.

Cluster Natural and Technological Arms Control Research (CNTR)

CNTR researches new technologies and developments in the natural sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective and develops recommendations to strengthen arms control. The Federal Foreign Office is funding CNTR for a period of four years.

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Neutrino-based safety monitoring for emerging nuclear technology and reactor types

Current international developments envisage the use of new types of nuclear reactors, e.g. “Small Modular Reactors” (SMRs), in order to cover the increasing global demand for energy with low emissions. Parallel to this, the use of ship reactors for submarines in non-nuclear weapon states is also being pursued. Both developments have the potential to make the control of nuclear fissile material (“safeguards”) more difficult. Against this background, the nuSENTRY project is investigating new measurement methods with the aim of developing new concepts for fissile material monitoring. To this end, the non-shieldable antineutrino emissions from active reactors, combined with neutron and muon measurements, are to be used.

nuSENTRY-Team

  Name Working area(s) Contact
Dr. Yan Jie Schnellbach
Junior Group Leader
Scientific Peace and Conflict Research
+49 6151 16-21455
S2|15 44
Sarah Friedrich M.Sc.
S2|15 42
Dr. Robin Tobias Mentel
S2|15 42
Dr. Adhitya Sekhar
S2|15 42

Forensic Measurements in Reactors for Nuclear Disarmament Verification: A New Approach

Nuclear disarmament has seen little progress over the last decades. However, despite or precisely because of the current crisis of nuclear arms control, it is pressing to sketch potential pathways on how to get back on a track of reductions in weapon arsenals, eventually making progress towards disarmament. As a requirement for such a process to succeed and be sustainable, having effective and widely accepted verification tools available is crucial.

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VeSPoTec

The research consortium VeSPoTec – Verification in a complex and unpredictable world: social, political and technical processes is a cooperation between RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, TU Darmstadt and the University of Duisburg-Essen.

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