EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been divided into two parts. The first installment will cover research undertaken in the social-political sphere. The topics discussed are titled: Social-Psychological Research, Criminal Typologies, and Control Preference Surveys. The succeeding issue will present the more technical aspects ot safeguards under the titles: Inspector-Diverter Game Theory, Optimization of Inspections, and Non-Destructive Analysis of Dissolved Spent Fuel. The research reported herein was conducted under grant GI-9 from the Research Applied to National Needs office of the National Science Foundation.
Introduction
The Diversion Safeguards Program at Kansas State University began on 1 June 1970 as one of the initial grants of the Research Applied to National Needs (then called Interdisciplinary Research Relevant to Problems of Our Society) program of the National Science Foundation. The purpose of our Program was to coordinate a varied group of scholars in research on a single problem concerned with public policy in a technological matter of growing concern, viz., nuclear materials safeguards. The value of this University study was in providing a bridge between technical and political elements which facilitated efforts to come to an understanding of the Impact of this technological matter on society. Accordingly, much of our research was composed of joint endeavors by scholars of various disciplines:
- political science,
- physical sciences,
- psychology,
- engineering,
- criminology.
In this article, we summarize the progress made by the Diversion Safeguards Program (now ended) in the study of the interaction between technological and human factors in Diversion Safeguards. The names of the principals involved appear under each topic.