Animating our Science: Increasing the Literacy and Accessibility of Nuclear Forensics

Scientific literacy is crucial to the long-term advancement of scientific research in all disciplines around the world, as it not only helps maintain a steady pipeline of young researchers entering scientific fields, but critically, scientific literacy allows societies to make better-informed decisions based on research and facts. The need for non-experts to have a basic understanding of a subject can be acutely true in some niche fields, such as the science of nuclear forensics. Whereas the concept of, and the societal need for, nuclear forensics can often be readily explained to a general audience in just a few choice sentences, communicating the science behind a nuclear forensic investigation can be a far more difficult task. A broad, basic understanding of the science associated with nuclear forensics serves multiple purposes. First, much like traditional forensics, the general knowledge that scientific procedures exist to aid tracking down criminals is in itself a deterrence against someone choosing to commit a criminal act. Second—and perhaps more germane to the long-term health of the field of nuclear forensics—is that a basic understanding of nuclear science informs decision makers about what can and cannot be done, and where gaps may exist in nuclear security. To specifically address broad scientific literacy for nuclear forensics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling, Detection, and Deterrence (NSDD) have created several animations of approximately three minutes each that address targeted topics associated with nuclear forensics. These include general overviews of the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear forensics, but also include deeper dives into topics like mass spectrometry, radiochronometry, and gamma spectroscopy, expanding on why these are important tools in the nuclear forensic toolbox and how they are used. This presentation reviews the topics covered in the animations and, more importantly, what NSDD and LLNL have learned using this approach with domestic and international partners.