Evolution of technologies for the Future: Remote Detection Advancements for
Nuclear Material Management.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) has a vision for developing technology that will provide unobtrusive surveillance with instantaneous accountability regarding the monitoring of nuclear material and nuclear material plant operations. Monitoring and characterization of nuclear facilities is an essential activity to meet the goals of the nuclear nonproliferation community. New developments in machine learning and cognitive inferencing have potential to greatly assist in delivering real-time monitoring capabilities and help in optimizing plant operations. Operating such automated monitoring systems requires good knowledge management, ability to dynamically update information, quantification of uncertainty in measurements, and superior quality interpretation of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithm outputs. This paper will introduce basic concepts regarding how research teams have been able to establish analytical techniques that couple observations of diverse physical phenomena with subject matter experts (SME) knowledge that will inform data collection and how to draw meaningful conclusions about nuclear activities.