DEVELOPMENT OF INSPECTION AND DETECTION TECHNIQUES FOR HIDDEN CAVITIES

RECENT TREATY NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE US AND THE USSR PLACE LIMITS ON THE SIZE AND LOCATIONS OF NUCLEAR TESTS. THESE LIMITS ARE PERCEIVED AS POTENTIAL INDUCEMENTS FOR THE USSR TO CONDUCT HIDDEN TESTS OUTSIDE THE TREATY REQUIREMENTS. ONE METHOD OF SECRETLY CONDUCTING TESTS WOULD BE TO PERFORM DECOUPLED TESTS IN LARGE HIDDEN UNDERGROUND CAVITIES. THE US MUST BE PREPARED TO QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY IDENTIFY ATTEMPTS AT TREATY VIOLATIONS. THIS PROPOSAL SPECIFIES PROCEDURES WHICH CAN BE DEVELOPED TO IDENTIFY THE EXCAVATION OR EXISTENCE OF LARGE HIDDEN UNDERGROUND CAVITIES. ADDITIONALLY, PROCEDURES WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR IDENTIFYING LIKELY CANDIDATES FOR FUTURE CAVITY EXCAVATION, TO PROVIDE A DETERRENT. THE APPROACH TAKEN BY UTD IS TO ANALYZE ALL AVAILABLE DETECTION TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE THEIR POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION IN DETECTING HIDDEN CAVITIES. THE GENERAL CATAGORIES OF TECHNIQUES TO BE INVESTIGATED INCLUDE: OVERHEAD IMAGERY FOR CONSTRUCTION SIGNATURE ANALYSIS; ON-SITE INSPECTION PROCEDURES UTLIZING MINING, CONSTRUCTION, AND DRILLING EXPERTISE; AND GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES. ONCE GENERAL PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN OUTLINED, SCENARIOS WILL BE DEVELOPED, RELYING ON RELEVENT CAVITY DETECTION CASE HISTORIES AND OTHER APPLICATIONS, TO AID IN THE DETERMINATION OF DETECTION TECHNIQUE CAPABILITIES. FINALLY, PLANS FOR PHASE II VERIFICATION EXPERIMENTS AND TESTS WILL BE DEVELOPED IN THE PHASE I EFFORT. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THIS RESEARCH WILL PROVIDE WORKING PROCEDURES AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS. KEY WORDS - CAVITY DETECTION, HIDDEN CAVITIES, MINING, DECOUPLING, ON-SITE INSPECTION, NUCLEAR TESTS, UNDERGROUND CAVITIES, DETECTION METHODS.