Hui Zhang, Frank N. von Hippel, "Using commercial imaging satellites to detect the operation of plutonium-production reactors and gaseous-diffusion plants," Science & Global Security, 8, no. 3, (2000): 261-313.
The operation of dedicated plutonium-production reactors and large gaseous-diffusion uranium-enrichment plants (GDPs), can be detected remotely using commercial observation-satellite imagery. Declassified Corona imagery is used to demonstrate that the new generation of commercial observation satellites with 1-meter spatial resolution will be able to detect vapor plumes inside and downwind from large operating natural-draft cooling towers. Low-resolution Landsat-5 thermal infrared images have been shown by other authors to be able to detect warm water discharges from reactors into lakes, rivers, etc. Here, the same systems are shown to be able detect the elevated temperature of the roofs of large operating GDPs. Commercial-satellite observations could therefore play an important role in increasing confidence in declarations that plutonium-production reactors and GDPs have been shut down as a result of a fissile-material-production moratorium or Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.
Article access: Taylor & Francis Online | Free PDF
Article access: Taylor & Francis Online | Free PDF
