Challenge
It is central to America's security interest to be able to detect, locate, identify, characterize, and respond to or mitigate nuclear weapons development by our adversaries. This challenge is exacerbated by the surge in demand for civilian nuclear power, which will lead to many conflicting signals, making it harder to distinguish between civilian and military uses of nuclear power. AI-enabled tools can analyze large, complex data streams in real time, identifying anomalies that indicate potential proliferation activities and providing decision makers with faster, more actionable information.
AI Solution
Develop multimodal foundation models and analytic agents that fuse novel data types from research and development testbeds with data from across the U.S. government and commercial sources (e.g., intelligence information, satellite imagery, environmental sensing, and open-source data) to detect subtle proliferation-relevant anomalies in near-real time and to generate analyst-ready evidence packages with confidence scoring. To accelerate progress, we must build secure multi-network data sharing and data governance; domain-specific data ontologies and knowledge graphs for the nuclear fuel cycle; multimodal model and graph-based training and validation capabilities for new data types; and unique human-AI teaming interfaces tailored to nonproliferation analysis workflows across classified and unclassified environments.
Justification
The project leverages NNSA's unique capabilities to address the challenges of AI development in the nonproliferation domain. NNSA has the nuclear fuel cycle domain expertise required to aggregate global nonproliferation-relevant data sources. Manual analysis cannot keep pace with the volume and variety of modern data streams, whereas automated, trustworthy AI shortens detection timelines, increases efficacy of detection activities, and improves use of technical subject matter experts. This effort will leverage existing and planned NNSA platforms and partnerships for rapid transition and iteration.
National Impact
The outcomes of this initiative will significantly enhance U.S. national security, deterrence, and global nonproliferation efforts by accelerating threat detection and decision cycles. It will provide policymakers with timely, credible intelligence to guide diplomatic and enforcement actions, enhance global nonproliferation cooperation by sharing standardized, auditable insights, enhance the perceived and real value of cooperation with America on civilian nuclear activities, and establish a model for AI-driven monitoring in other critical security domains.
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