The Physics Department Kimball Smith Series presents
Rachel Carr, Assistant Professor of Physics, United States Naval Academy:
“Possibilities for Neutrinos in Nuclear Security .”
The potential for neutrinos as a nuclear security tool has been recognized for nearly 70 years – well before these weakly interacting particles were even detected. As an unshieldable emission from fission products, neutrinos are powerful messengers about the inner workings of reactors, nuclear explosions, submarines, and spent fuel. The flip side of that power is a serious practical weakness: as particle physicists have long known, capturing neutrino signals requires complex and often very large detectors. This talk will discuss a variety of ideas proposed for neutrino applications in reactor safeguards, nuclear verification, and related areas. Although none of these ideas have yet been practically realized, advances in detector technology are bringing some possibilities closer to reality. The talk will include both recent technical results and questions for the nuclear policy community with the goal of generating some cross-disciplinary conversation.
Rachel Carr came to Annapolis following postdoctoral research at MIT, where she was a Pappalardo Fellow in Physics, working on neutrino and dark matter experiments, and a Stanton Fellow in Nuclear Security, working with nuclear engineers and political scientists on arms control projects. Previously, she was an American Institute of Physics Congressional Science Fellow in the office of US Senator Dianne Feinstein. Rachel completed a PhD at Columbia University and a BA in Physics and Philosophy at the University of Virginia.