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RaDIA: Visual Analytics for Systematic Sample Association in Nuclear Weapon Test Verification Workflows

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

National Data Centres (NDCs) responsible for nuclear weapon test verification face a critical analytical challenge: systematically identifying radionuclide samples that may share common source regions. Current tools from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) fragment workflows across separate applications for spectrum analysis, timeseries visualization, and atmospheric transport modeling, forcing analysts to manually compare samples through ad hoc Excel-based methods. We present RaDIA (Radionuclide Data Integration and Analysis), a visual analytics dashboard that integrates sample metadata, isotopic measurements, and source-receptor sensitivity (SRS) fields into coordinated multiple views. RaDIA implements a spatial overlap detection algorithm that quantifies associations between samples by calculating shared grid cells in backward atmospheric trajectories, visualized through interactive maps, temporal Sankey diagrams, and sortable tables. Through Research-through-Design with three NDCs, we show that RaDIA addresses documented workflow gaps by consolidating fragmented tools, thereby alleviating user effort, and enabling systematic sample association. Our work suggests how domain-specific visual analytics can strengthen analytical capacity for smaller NDCs in high-stakes verification contexts.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEICS 2026 Companion - Companion of the 2026 ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationCompanion Proceedings of the 18th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
EditorsAndreas Komninos, Carmen Santoro, Anke Dittmar
Place of PublicationNew York, United States
PublisherACM - Association for Computing Machinery
Pages17-22
Number of pages6
Edition2026
ISBN (Electronic)979-8-4007-2669-9
DOIs
StatePublished - 29 Jul 2026
Event2026 - 18th ACM SIGCHI: Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems - Patras
Duration: 30 Jun 20263 Jul 2026
https://eics.acm.org/2026/

Publication series

NameEICS 2026 Companion - Companion of the 2026 ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems

Conference

Conference2026 - 18th ACM SIGCHI
Abbreviated titleEICS2026
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityPatras
Period2026-06-302026-07-03
Internet address

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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