Galaxy Serpent: A Web-based Tabletop Exercise Using the Concept of National Nuclear Forensics Libraries

Galaxy Serpent is a first-of-a-kind, virtual, web-based internationaltabletop exercise where teams of scientists from variouscountries used provided public domain spent fuel compositionsto formulate their own national nuclear forensics library(NNFL), and determined if hypothetically seized spent nuclearfuel is or is not consistent with their national nuclear forensicslibrary. This tabletop exercise is conducted under the auspicesof the Nuclear Forensics International Technical WorkingGroup (ITWG) and funded and organized by the U.S. Departmentof State with technical expertise provided by the U.S.Department of Homeland Security. It involved scientists fromapproximately twenty-four countries, and the active participationof eighteen teams. Galaxy Serpent aims to promote “best practices”through providing a vehicle for participants to gather keytechnical expertise to create an NNFL using guidelines in InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents and to illustratethe potential probative benefits offered by creating such alibrary. During the play of Galaxy Serpent, many teams quicklyrealized the need to involve other areas of expertise such asnuclear reactor engineers and fuel experts. The involvementof such additional experts helps to mature the range of expertiseof the nuclear forensics international community. Teamsalso noted that different technical approaches yielded similaranalytical conclusions, and that the original purpose, history,and limitations of the provided data sets sometimes limitedthe confidence levels associated with their findings. In addition,some of Galaxy Serpent teams have used this tabletopexercise experience to inform their efforts at home to developor refine their own NNFLs. The exercise has yielded insightfullessons regarding the efficacy NNFLs can provide, and howthey, in concert with traditional forensics, may expand the suiteof tools for investigating nuclear or other radioactive materialoutside legitimate control.