Robert J. Goldston is a Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University. He received his B.A. in Physics from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Princeton University. He was director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), 1997 – 2009. He is Associated Faculty with the Program on Science and Global Security, and was acting director in Spring 2015. Goldston won the American Physical Society “Excellence in Plasma Physics” award in 1988 and chaired the American Physical Society Physics Policy Committee 2007–2009. He won the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award in 2001, the Nuclear Fusion “Most Outstanding Paper” prize for 2012, and was named a “Leading Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine in 2014. He is a long-time U.S. representative on the ITER Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He serves on the board of the Council for a Livable World.
Research Interests
After participating in the development of the concept of a “Zero Knowledge Protocol” for warhead verification, Professor Goldston worked with MAE graduate student, Sébastien Philippe, on the successful demonstration of this protocol, using instrumentation located at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He is currently working with MAE graduate student Mike Hepler on extending this technique to isotope discrimination, in particular between U-238 and U-235. This involves the construction of a new collimator/moderator to slow neutrons from 14.1 MeV to below 1 MeV. Goldston is also developing tools for use by international inspectors to verify that the operation of a uranium enrichment plant is within declared limits. He is collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they are testing experimentally his idea for a non-invasive thermal method to measure the flow of uranium hexafluoride gas in pipes within uranium enrichment plants. This is a key means to determine if a plant is operating within declared limits. He is also constructing at PPPL a robotic neutron detector, which should be capable of detecting small quantities of highly-enriched uranium in a uranium enrichment plant. It could also be used to confirm that the feedstock to the enrichment plant is composed only of natural uranium. Feeding enriched uranium is the most direct route to the production of weapons-grade material. In the arms control arena, such detectors could be used to confirm that declared warheads are not removed from storage facilities, or that facilities declared not to contain warheads do not. Goldston also contributes policy analysis pieces to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Goldston’s fusion research interests are not included here.
Publications
F. d’Errico, A. Chierici, M. Gattas-Sethi, S. Philippe, R. J. Goldston, and A. Glaser, New Developments and Applications of Superheated Emulsions: Warhead Verification and Special Nuclear Material Interdiction, Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 180, 2018.
R. J. Goldston, What Can the Kerch Strait Incident Teach About Nuclear Declaratory Policy?, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 2018.
R. J. Goldston, A. Glaser, M. Kütt, P. Landgren, N. E. Leonard, Autonomous Mobile Directionally and Spectrally Sensitive Neutron Detectors, IAEA Safeguards Symposium, Vienna Austria, October 2018.
R. J. Goldston, E. D. Emdee, M. A. Jaworski, M. E. Rensink, T.D. Rognlien, J.A. Schwartz, A Simplified Lithium Vapor Box Divertor, IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Gandhinagar, India, October 2018.
R. J. Goldston, How to Make Progress With North Korea Now, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 2018.
M. Hepler, R. J. Goldston, P. Kunkle, A. Glaser, J. E. G. Peek, S. Philippe, Machine Vision for Imaging Bubbles: from the Interstellar Medium to Neutron Detectors for Zero-Knowledge Warhead Verification, 59th Annual INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 2018.
M. Hepler, S. Philippe, A. Glaser, R. J. Goldston, and F. d’Errico, Not so Fast: Tailoring 14 MeV Neutrons for Zero-Knowledge Isotopic Comparison of Uranium Objects, 59th Annual INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 2018.
R. J. Goldston, Iran after Sunset, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 2018.
R. J. Goldston, Why Fusion?, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 2018.
T. Eich, R. J. Goldston, A. Kallenbach, B. Sieglin, and H. Sun, Correlation of the Tokamak H-Mode Density Limit with Ballooning Stability at the Separatrix, Nuclear Fusion, 58, 2018.
R. J. Goldston, 2015 Nuclear Fusion Prize Acceptance Speech, Nuclear Fusion, 57, 2017.
R. L. Garwin, R. J. Goldston, R.Holt, R.S. Kemp, F.v.Hippel, Scientists’ Letter on the Iran Accord, sent to Chairs and Ranking Members of Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, October 2017
R. J. Goldston, A. Khodak, M. A. Jaworski, M. J. Sibilia, and M. E. Walker, Unattended Mass Flow Meter for Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, 58th Annual INMM Meeting, Indian Wells, CA, July 2017.
M. E. Walker, R. J. Goldston, and A. Glaser, Unattended 235U Feed and Withdrawal Monitor for Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, 58th Annual INMM Meeting, Indian Wells, CA, July 2017.
R. J. Goldston, M. Reinke, and J. Schwartz, A New Scaling for Divertor Detachment, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 59, 2017.
R. J. Goldston, A. Hakim, G. W. Hammett, M. A. Jaworski, and J. Schwartz, Recent Advances towards a Lithium Vapor Box Divertor, Nuclear Materials and Energy, 12, 2017.
R. J. Goldston, Interim Nuclear Deal in N. Korea Will Help Cool Hot Heads, Newark Star Ledger, April 2017.
M.E. Walker and R. J. Goldston, Timely Verification at Large-scale Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, Science & Global Security, 25, 2017.
E.T. Meier, R. J. Goldston, E. G. Kaveeva, M. A. Makowski, S. Mordijk, V. A. Rozhansky, I. Yu. Senichenkov, and S. P. Voskoboynikov, Drifts, Currents, and Power Scrape-off Width in SOLPS-ITER Modeling of DIII-D, Nuclear Materials and Energy, 12, 2017.
C. Neumeyer and R. J. Goldston, Dynamic EROI Assessment of the IPCC 21st Century Electricity Production Scenario, Sustainability, 8, 2016.
M. E. Walker and R. J. Goldston, Opportunities for Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards at Large-Scale Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, Advances in Nuclear Nonproliferation Technology & Policy Conference, American Nuclear Society, Santa Fe, NM, September 2016.
S. Philippe, R. J. Goldston, A. Glaser, F. d’Errico, A Physical Zero-Knowledge Object-Comparison System for Nuclear Warhead Verification, Nature Communications, 7, 2016.
R. J. Goldston, M. E. Walker, and A. Glaser, Timely Verification at Large-scale Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, 57th Annual INMM Meeting, Atlanta, GA, July 2016.
J. Horaçek, R. A. Pitts, J. Adamek, G. Arnoux, J.-G. Bak, S. Brezinsek, M. Dimitrova, R. J. Goldston, J. P. Gunn, J. Havlicek, Multi-machine Scaling of the Main SOL Parallel Heat Flux Width in Tokamak Limiter Plasmas, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 58, 2016.
E.T. Meier, R. J. Goldston, E. G. Kaveeva, M. A. Makowski, S. Mordijk, V. A. Rozhansky, I. Yu. Senichenkov, and S. P. Voskoboynikov, Analysis of drift effects on the tokamak power scrape-off width using SOLPS-ITER, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 58, 2016.
R. J. Goldston, R. Myers, and J. Schwartz, The Lithium Vapor Box Divertor, Physica Scripta, T167, 2016.
S. Philippe, R. J. Goldston, G. Ascione, A. Carpe, F. d’Errico, C. Gentile, and A. Glaser, Experimental Demonstration of a Physical Zero-Knowledge Protocol for Warhead Verification, 56th Annual INMM Meeting, Indian Wells, CA, July 2015.
R. J. Goldston, Theoretical Aspects and Practical Implications of the Heuristic Drift SOL Model, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 463, 2015.
R. J. Goldston, Negotiating with Iran: Breakout and Sneakout, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 2015.
D. Turnbull, A. Glaser and R. J. Goldston, Investigating the Value of Fusion Energy Using the Global Change Assessment Model, Energy Economics, 51, 2015.
R. Dejarnac, P. C. Stangeby, R. J. Goldston, R. J. Gauthier, J. Horacek, M. Hron, M. Kocan, M. Komm, R. Panek, R. A. Pitts, and P. Vonraceck, Understanding Narrow SOL Power Flux Component in COMPASS Limiter Plasmas by Use of Langmuir Probes, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 463, 2015.
M. Kocan, R. A. Pitts, G. Arnoux, I. Balboa, P. C. de Vries, R. Dejarnac, I. Fumo, R. J. Goldston, Y. Gribov, and J. Horacek, Impact of a Narrow Limiter SOL Heat Flux Channel on the ITER First Wall Panel Shaping, Nuclear Fusion, 55, 2015.
J. Horaçek, P. Vondracek, R. Panek, M. Komm, R. A. Pitts, M. Kocan, R. J. Goldston, P. C. Stangeby, E. Gauthier, P. Hacek, M. Hron, M. Imrisek, F. Janky, and J. Seidl, Narrow Heat Flux Channels in the COMPASS Limiter Scrape-off Layer, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 463, 2015.
J. K. Park, R. J. Goldston, N. A. Crocker, E. D. Fredrickson, M. G. Bell, R. Maingi, K. Tritz, A. Jaworski, S. Kubota, F. Kelly, S. P. Gerhardt, S. M. Kaye, J. E. Menard, and M. Ono, Observation of EHO in NSTX and Theoretical Study of its Active Control Using HHFW Antenna, Nuclear Fusion, 54, 2014.
A. Glaser, B. Barak, and R. J. Goldston, A Zero-Knowledge Protocol for Nuclear Warhead Verification, Nature, 510, 2014.
Talks
The H-Mode Density Limit, ITER Tokamak Physics Activity, Divertor and SOL, December 2018.
SOL Physics and Heat Dissipation, Institute of Plasma Physics, ASDEX-Upgrade Retreat, Ringberg, October 2018.
A Simplified Lithium Vapor Box Divertor, IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, October 2018.
Tutorial on SOL Physics and Divertor Dissipation, International Conference on Plasma Surface Interaction, June 2018.
A New Scaling for Divertor Detachment, APS Division of Plasma Physics, November 2017.
Breakout and Timely Verification at Large Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants, Global Security Technical Webinar Series, Union of Concerned Scientists, June 2017.
Testing the Physics of the Heuristic Drift SOL Model, Transport Task Force, Denver, CO, March 2016.
Testing the HD Model, ITPA DivSOL, Frascati, Italy, January 2016.
Technical Aspects of the Iran Nuclear Agreement, Colloquium at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, November 2015.
The Iran Nuclear Deal (with Harold Feiveson), The Senior Resource Center, Princeton, NJ, October 2015.
Teaching
The Science of Fission and Fusion Energy (AST/MAE/PHY/ENE 309). Nuclear fission power offers a low-carbon source of electricity. However, it also carries significant risks: nuclear proliferation (North Korea and Iran), major accidents (Fukushima), and waste disposal (Yucca Mountain). Fusion energy is moving towards realization as an alternative low-carbon source of energy from the nucleus. It carries fewer risks, but the timetable for its commercialization is not yet known. We delve into the physics of these energy sources, so that students can understand the issues for themselves. A benefit of this course is that students expand their scientific skills in applying them to important real-world problems. Offered: Spring 2019.