In 2002, Norman worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and became involved in a project focused on screening cargo containers for special nuclear material – that is 235U or 239Pu. While working there, he along with his colleagues devised a scheme using fast neutrons to irradiate the cargo and then to look for high energy beta-delayed gamma rays emitted by fission products as the signature. Subsequently, his group has worked on a number of experiments in nuclear forensics designed to determine the nature and/or origins of a variety of nuclear materials.