Science AMA Series: I’m Sara Pozzi, the director of the Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT) and a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. My group, and the CVT, develop technologies for nuclear nonproliferation. AMA!

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My research group, the Detection for Nuclear Nonproliferation Group, works on technologies for detecting special nuclear materials, such as uranium-235 and plutonium-239, that can be used to make nuclear weapons. We focus on scintillators that can detect both neutrons and gamma rays, and which operate at room temperature.

Having developed algorithms to reliably tell the more informative neutrons from the much more common gamma rays, we are now exploring how to turn scintillator arrays into radiation imagers. Also, with the benefit of a new X-ray generator, we will be investigating the use of our detectors in “active interrogation” - using radiation to make special nuclear materials more radioactive so that they can be measured more quickly and accurately.

Our detection strategies, and those in development by our colleagues in the CVT, are designed to ensure that nuclear treaties are being followed. This means watching for signs that nuclear energy countries are secretly trying to become nuclear weapon states, detecting undeclared nuclear tests and confirming - without revealing classified information - that countries are disarming old warheads.

I will be back at 10 am ET to answer your questions, AMA!

">Science AMA Series: I’m Sara Pozzi, the director of the Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT) and a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. My group, and the CVT, develop technologies for nuclear nonproliferation. AMA!