Laser surface authentication for containment and surveillance

Full text: Containment and Surveillance (C and S) techniques are extensively used for Agency safeguards activities because they are flexible and cost effective. The two main C and S categories have been optical surveillance and sealing systems. A revolutionary new technology invented by physicists at Imperial College, London and the University of Durham may now provide a new tool for both laser item identification and sealing systems authentication. The method uses surface intrinsic features applicable to UF-6 containers and safeguards seals. The Laser Surface Authentication (LSA) technology, invented by Prof. Russell Cowburn, Professor of Physics, and his team in the Nanotechnology Laboratories of Imperial College, London, recognizes the inherent 'fingerprint' within all material surfaces such as paper, plastic, metals and ceramics. In the laser item identification application, this fingerprint identification will uniquely identify a container at a distance (perhaps 50 cm). In the sealing systems authentication application, the identification takes place nearly on contact (1 cm). In either case, the unique fingerprint is formed by the differentiation of microscopic surface imperfections in the container or the seal. Once the unique signature of the container or the seal is extracted by the LSA method, the signature can be subsequently used to authenticate the container or the seal as genuine and quickly identify counterfeit items. In addition, since every surface on every item is microscopically different, the distribution of 'like' container or seal signatures is expected to be well separated from the distribution of 'unlike' container or seal signatures. The separation of these two distributions on some materials is such that estimated false positives are less than one in 10 to the power 100+ using fitted distributions, exceeding the forensic identification and discrimination performance of DNA. The laser item identification system (LIIS) application satisfies a safeguards need to develop an unattended surveillance method to uniquely identify UF-6 cylinders entering and exiting a nuclear facility. The LIIS will go well beyond the capabilities of standard optical surveillance by not only detecting containers in motion, but by also uniquely identifying such containers. In this case, laser speckle from the container's surface will uniquely identify the container without the need to add external tags or other markings. In the sealing systems application, a focused laser beam a short distance from the seal surface results in scattering from the surface. A scanner records the resulting laser speckle and creates a unique identity code. This code, like any other type of seal identifier, can be stored in a database along with other information such as date, time of application, inspector identity, location, and other information. The LSA system will use a compact laser device to read this naturally occurring fingerprint and then store the information securely in a database. The seal can be checked at any time by performing subsequent scans in the field which will automatically check against the existing stored fingerprint data and verify its authenticity. A key advantage to this approach is that there is no need to modify the seal in any way with tags, chips, inks, or other overt markings Thus, the LSA system can provide a high level of security against seal counterfeiting compared to other technologies, and at a fraction of the cost since the seal itself requires no modification. (author)