Classification, Categorization, and Screening for Nuclear Assessment of Satellites Using NHEP-S

The nuclear assessment of a satellite system has the potential of quickly overwhelming assessment resources when all nuclear weapon effects and responses are considered. The NHEP-S assessment methodology contains screening, classification and categorization procedures for systematically reducing the magnitude of the problem so that resources are applied to the most critical elements. This paper presents a specific application of the problem reducing procedures in the assessment of an existing satellite subsystem for the nuclear weapon effect of SGEMP burnout. The example demonstrates the ability of the problem reduction techniques to aid in the computation of a quantitative description of system nuclear performance for complex electronic systems.