Cooperative Feasibility Test of Remote Monitoring of Unattended Sensors

A feasibility test on remote monitoring of unattended sensors was conducted by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) under a bilateral agreement between the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) and JAERI. The Containment and Surveillance Data Authenticated Communication (CASDAC) system developed by JAERI for nuclear safeguards and physical protection is a prototype system for remote monitoring of sensor status through the international telephone network. Sensor inputs to the CASDAC system are provided by prototype tamper-protected sensor enclosures developed by SNL on behalf of ACDA. The CASDAC system normally operates on a polling basis from the central control console at JAERI, but data transmission may also be initiated from the remote read unit at SNL when a sensor activation is detected. All transmission data are encrypted. Statistics concerning reliability, time delay for anomaly detection, and records of all sensor activations were accumulated since May 1992. This paper describes the objectives and preliminary evaluation of the accumulated data. The U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) funded the experiment at SNL to obtain information about the potential of CASDAC for use in Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) applications.