M.Sc. Projects in Nuclear Safeguards and Security

Who are we looking for?
- Someone who wants to make the world a better place!
- Someone who is interested in computer simulations and /or measurements and data analysis.
- Someone who has good programming skills (C++, MATLAB, Python etc). Experience from real-time programming is a plus.
- Someone who is interested in innovation and entrepreneurship. The project is based on ideas with IP (patents) pending and an additional objective is to develop the potential for commercial applications.

We think the KTH programs in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or Engineering Physics or equivalent is a suitable background.

Background
Special nuclear materials like plutonium and uranium, which are used peacefully in nuclear power reactors around the world, also constitute one of the largest threats to humankind. Nuclear weapons of mass destruction have the potential to destroy life on Earth as we know it many times over. This already unacceptable risk is increased considerably by and is intimately connected to the risk of such materials spreading outside of the established nuclear weapons states. International efforts to mitigate such risks are organized via the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It is the responsibility of all states who have signed agreements with the IAEA (like Sweden) to work actively on measures to secure the use of nuclear materials and to control its borders against illicit trafficking of such materials.
Besides the risk of nuclear weapons being developed and potentially used by “rogue states” there is also increasing concern that nuclear materials may come into the hands of terror organizations for making improvised nuclear devices or “dirty bombs” that each could easily destroy one of the major cities in the world for a foreseeable future.
The KTH Nuclear Physics Division within the Department of Physics, School of Engineering Sciences
The KTH Nuclear Physics Division has a group dedicated to nuclear safeguards and security supported by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) and the Swedish Research Council (VR). The objective of the research at KTH is to develop new detection techniques and methodologies in these two fields and to come up with novel solutions and strategies for enhanced performance.

For nuclear security the main task is to discover the presence of, locate, and quantify small amounts of radioactive and nuclear materials in radiation portal monitor (RPM) applications using radiation detection devices for the screening of persons, personal luggage, vehicles, cargo etc at airports and other border crossings or at secure facilities like nuclear plants.
In nuclear safeguards, which is defined as the effort to prevent diversion of fissile material, i.e. nuclear non-proliferation, we carry out research on new devices that can perform scanning of spent nuclear fuel assemblies for the purpose of verifying their content.
This is one of the critical tasks for the process of placing the vast amounts of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel into its final deep rock repository.