On June 12-13, the fourth annual Cross-Disciplinary Conference of the Alva Myrdal Centre for Nuclear Disarmament took place at Uppsala University, Sweden. The conference serves as a platform for sharing and discussing research, ideas, and experiences related to nuclear disarmament. It brings together insights from the social sciences, natural sciences, and other academic fields, along with perspectives from practical experience from more than one hundred researchers taking part. In this year's AMC Cross-Disciplinary Conference with more than 30 panel discussions and presentations, Fabian Unruh, Laura Mertes, Lukas Rademacher, and Luis Pazos Clemens participated for CNTR. 

At the panel discussion on nuclear archaeology, Fabian Unruh and CNTR affiliated researchers Benajmin Jung and Max Schalz participated. Fabian Unruh presented his research on “Verifying operational histories of nuclear reactor with archival records in nuclear archaeology”. Most nuclear reactors are inherently linked to plutonium production, making the reconstruction of their operational history crucial for nuclear verification. While nuclear archaeology primarily focuses on forensic measurements, the potential of using existing reactor archives is largely unexplored. A study utilizing the archives of the Mehrzweckforschungsreaktor Karlsruhe (MZFR), a peacefully used research reactor in Germany, demonstrates a three-step approach for verification exercises. This involves screening data for relevance and addressing challenges like missing information, checking the self-consistency of archival data using statistical methods, and evaluating the sensitivity to detect undeclared reactor operations. The analysis expects most documented measurements to be physically correlated, enabling inspectors to verify operation periods and prevent clandestine material diversion. This method, applied to the MZFR archives, serves as a starting point for reconstructing the operational histories of nuclear reactors using archival data.

On the second day, Laura Mertes particpated on a panel on fissile material, presenting her research on “Plutonium production of the Chinese fast breeder reactor”. Since China is expanding its nuclear energy program with fast breeder reactors like the CFR-600 to reduce coal dependence, it raises concerns about potential military applications amid China's growing nuclear weapons program, which is closely tied to its production of fissile material.

During poster presentations, Lukas Rademacher and Luis Pazos Clemens also had the opportunity to discusst their research topic with a broad audience. The research topics presented were:

• Uniqueness of Nuclear Warhead Neutron Signatures (Luis Pazos Clemens)
• Differentiating between Plutonium and Tritium Production Modes using Nuclear Archaeology (Lukas Rademacher)

The conference culminated in a keynote address by Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.