Detecting Vehicle Movement with Seismic Observations

The detection and characterization of signals related to the transfer of material remains a complex problem in forensic seismology. Such signals can occur in noisy environments where it becomes increasingly difficult to isolate associated signals from other cultural noise. We took advantage of a rich seismic dataset from a 12-day controlled experiment focused on recording signals generated by industrial-sized vehicles entering and exiting the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) complex. Ground-truth data was collected during the experiment using low- and high- resolution GPS and video camera footage to track the vehicle position and configuration. We analyzed 24 hours of seismic data using a single station (Station Number 264126) and implemented a classic seismic detection method to detect, identify and measure signals generated by the vehicles operating on a fixed transfer schedule.

When and Where Presented: This poster was virtually presented in August 2021 to members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The work described was funded by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, Office of Proliferation Detection. This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). This research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This research used resources of the Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.