Inspections weapons

A D—T fusion reactor is expected to have a tritium inventory of a few kilograms. Tritium is a relatively short-Hved (12.36 year half-life) and benign (beta emitter) radioactive material, and represents a radiological ha2ard many orders of magnitude less than does the fuel inventory in a fission reactor. Clearly, however, fusion reactors must be designed to preclude the accidental release of tritium or any other volatile radioactive material. There is no need to have fissile materials present in a fusion reactor, and relatively simple inspection techniques should suffice to prevent any clandestine breeding of fissile materials, eg, for potential weapons diversion. 

Planned maintenance programs are an essential weapon in a department s armory to ensure that the services it is called on in meeting its responsibilities are fully met. The traditional method of working from pieces of paper or individuals own notebooks as to when maintenance is to be carried out or when the insurance representative is due to visit to carry out an inspection are no longer satisfactory. This is especially the case when the skilled resources necessary to carry out the work are more difficult to obtain. 

Malfunctions of small arms ammo using the M34 primer have been related to inadequate control of pellet wt in the primer, with low pellet weight causing hangfires in the weapon. At the Army Mechanics and Materials Research Center (AMMRC), Watertown, Mass, NAA was investigated for 100% inspection of pellet wt in such primers (Refs 5 6)... 

This feasibility study shows that determination of pellet wt by fast neutron oxygen activation analysis can be used for quality assurance inspection of M34 primers. Either direct oxygen analysis, where a comparison standard (such as lucite) is used, or a ratio method, utilizing the Cu in the cup-anvil combination as an internal standard, can be applied. In general, the uniformity of production primers is quite satisfactory, as is usually the case where production procedures are standardized. It seems likely that the light pellet is one which has been improperly manufd and will probably be well below specifications in pellet wt. Production experience with such primers indicates that only one in 3x10s primers is expected to show low pellet wt therefore, one would not expect to find a reject in a small sampling. Nevertheless, detection and rejection of this one bad unit is critical for the prevention of weapon malfunctions and possible injuries to personnel... 

As to the dollar-value of the Arsenal, its facilities are valued at over 500,000,000. The nature of these facilities varies, from the conventional to the nuclear. Conventional ammunition production lines, control laboratories and inspection systems are maintained in stand-by and are occasionally used in experimental or pilot-lot production. Nuclear weapons ammunition, components and devices are developed and produced in the. necessarily special research laboratories, proof-testing facilities and production and pilot assembly lines... 

Inspection Team Leader / Senior Medical Officer Inspectorate, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Johan de Wittlaan 32 2517 JR Den Haag. The Netherlands Tel. +31 (0)70-416.31.74 Fax +31(0)70-306.35.35 E mail Clarence.Brown ,opcw.org... 

Quarantine Quarantine is the isolation of patients with a communicable disease, or those exposed to a communicable disease, during the contagious period in order to control the spread of illness. Quarantine over the years has been a practice of holding travelers or ships, trucks, or airplanes coming from places of epidemic disease for the purpose of inspection or disinfection. In the age of weapons of mass destruction, quarantine is defined as the restriction of activities or limitation of freedom of movement of those pre-... 

Approximately 1 million 8 ft x 8 ft containers enter the United States monthly, and only 2 percent of them are inspected in any way before delivery. These uninspected containers could hold nuclear weapons, contaminated items, biological weapons, or dissemination devices. How can these items be prevented from entering the country ... 

Boresafe. This term is applied to a projectile when all of its detong elements are positively separated from the booster by some form of interruption while in the bore of a weapon Ref Anon, Ammunition Inspection Guide ,TM 9.1904 (1944),322... 

Calibers of current US artillery weapons are listed in Vol l,p A386- R. Calibers of WWII German weapons are listed in Ref 4 Refs l)Anon, "Ammunition Inspection Guide , TM 9-1904(1944), 7 2)Ohart(1946), 10 64- 5 3)G.M.Bames, "Weapons of World War II ,... 

Although the war was a decisive military victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq suffered enormous damage and Saddam Hussein was not removed from power. In fact, Hussein was free to turn his attention towards suppressing internal Shite and Kurd revolts, which the coalition did not support. Iraq agreed coalition peace terms, but every effort was made by the Iraqis to frustrate the implementation of the terms, particularly United Nations weapons inspections. 

The foundation of the CWC s inspection activities was based around the declaration by member states of their chemical weapons capabilities and activities. Nations with chemical warfare programmes were required to declare their production, storage and destruction facilities, which would then receive top monitoring priority. Nevertheless, the CWC did allow states to maintain research programmes to ensure the integrity of defensive equipment such as gas masks and gas detectors, but these activities were also to be closely monitored since they involved work with the chemical agents listed on Schedule l.9 Otherwise, all other warfare agents, mustard gas, Lewisite, soman, sarin, tabun, VX and the capability to produce them were to be eliminated under the watchful eyes of international inspectors (Table 8.1).10 The convention thus defined chemical weapons as any toxic chemical, or its precursors, intended for purposes other than those not prohibited under this convention for... 

Until member states make the effort to review declarations and demand access to the final reports from inspections, they will be in no position to ascertain whether other states have accurately declared their military and civilian chemical capabilities. Nonetheless, the declarations are reviewed avidly by those member states that take chemical weapons seriously. The CWC denies access to the raw inspection reports, but not to compilations of data from them, which, again, are read avidly. However, given... 

Chemical weapon disarmament has progressed far since the first attempts were made a 100 years previously to outlaw the use of chemical weapons in war. The CWC still holds the best promise for reducing the threat of chemical warfare by building an environment of confidence and security. As well as instruments of verification and inspection, the CWC also possesses resort to aid and assistance in the area of chemical warfare defences in case of attack. In the final analysis, however, the overriding aim of the CWC continues to be the effective ban of all chemical weapons, complemented by the desire to promote the peaceful use of chemicals in industry. Whether such incentives will balance the pressure to acquire such weapons remains to be seen. 

The role of S A at a Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility (CWDF) is different than in other types of inspections. At a CWDF, the main objective of S A is to confirm the identity of a particular chemical that has been declared, that is, the declared chemical agent that is being destroyed. Further,... 

In conformity with the relevant provisions in the Confidentiality Annex the inspected State Party shall have the right to take measures to protect sensitive installations and prevent disclosure of confidential information and data not related to chemical weapons. Such measures may include, inter alia . .. 

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) provides sampling and analysis as a tool for verification. General procedures to use sampling and analysis are outlined under the general rules of verification in the Verification Annex (VA) Part II paragraph 52-58, special provisions concerning different types of inspections are given in various parts of the VA. 

---