THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Policy and Global Affairs
Committee on International Security and Arms Control
Committee on Enhancing U.S. Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Support Capabilities
*****
Congressional Briefings
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
and
Monday, December 6, 2021
9:00 a.m.
on
Restoring and Improving Nuclear Forensics to Support Attribution and Deterrence:
Public Summary
Requested by Congress in P.L. 115-232, the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, this new report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, evaluates the U.S. government's nuclear forensics capabilities. A 2010 National Academies report, Nuclear Forensics: A Capability at Risk, characterized the precarious state of the national technical nuclear forensics (NTNF) program at that time: NTNF relied almost entirely on staff dedicated to and residual funding from other related programs. This summary report addresses the current state of U.S. NTNF capabilities relative to the National Academies evaluation in 2010 and recommends ways to improve the NTNF program through improvements in policy, operations, and research and development efforts.
These briefings were on the classified report and were for members of Congress and congressional staff with clearance only. A public summary was released on November 17, 2021 and can be found, in its entirety, on the Web site of the National Academies Press.