Overview of NWIS software

The Nuclear Weapons Identification System (NWIS) is a system that performs radiation signature measurements on objects such as nuclear weapons components. NWIS consists of a {sup 252} Cf fission source, radiation detectors and associated analog electronics, data acquisition boards, and computer running Windows NT and the application software. NWIS uses signal processing techniques to produced a radiation signature from the radiation emitted from the object. The signature can be stored and later compared to another signature to determine whether two objects are similar. A library of such signatures can be used to identify objects in closed containers as well as determine such attributes as fissile mass and it some cases enrichment. There are three executables built from the software: (1) Windows NT kernel-mode device driver; (2) data acquisition application; and (3) data analysis application. The device driver is the interface between the NWIS data acquisition boards and the remainder o f the software. The data acquisition executable is the user's tool for making an NWIS measurement; it has limited data display abilities. The data analysis executable is a user's tool for displaying an NWIS measurement, including matching it to other NWIS measurements. A users manual for the software is included.