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Title: Progress Towards Deployable Antineutrino Detectors for Reactor Safeguards

Abstract

Fission reactors emit large numbers of antineutrinos and this flux may be useful for the measurement of two quantities of interest for reactor safeguards: the reactor's power and plutonium inventory throughout its cycle. The high antineutrino flux and relatively low background rates means that simple cubic meter scale detectors at tens of meters standoff can record hundreds or thousands of antineutrino events per day. Such antineutrino detectors would add online, quasi-real-time bulk material accountancy to the set of reactor monitoring tools available to the IAEA and other safeguards agencies with minimal impact on reactor operations. Between 2003 and 2008, our LLNL/SNL collaboration successfully deployed several prototype safeguards detectors at a commercial reactor in order to test both the method and the practicality of its implementation in the field. Partially on the strength of the results obtained from these deployments, an Experts Meeting was convened by the IAEA Novel Technologies Group in 2008 to assess current antineutrino detection technology and examine how it might be incorporated into the safeguards regime. Here we present a summary of our previous deployments and discuss current work that seeks to provide expanded capabilities suggested by the Experts Panel, in particular aboveground detector operation.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1009223
Report Number(s):
LLNL-CONF-427450
TRN: US1101416
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-ENG-48
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at: Pacific Northwest International Conference on Global Nuclear Security-the Decade Ahead, Portland, OR, United States, Apr 02 - Apr 16, 2010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; ANTINEUTRINOS; DETECTION; FISSION; IAEA; IMPLEMENTATION; METERS; MONITORING; PLUTONIUM; REACTOR OPERATION; SAFEGUARDS

Citation Formats

Bowden, N, Bernstein, A, Dazeley, S, Keefer, G, Reyna, D, Cabrera-Palmer, B, and Kiff, S. Progress Towards Deployable Antineutrino Detectors for Reactor Safeguards. United States: N. p., 2010. Web.
Bowden, N, Bernstein, A, Dazeley, S, Keefer, G, Reyna, D, Cabrera-Palmer, B, & Kiff, S. Progress Towards Deployable Antineutrino Detectors for Reactor Safeguards. United States.
Bowden, N, Bernstein, A, Dazeley, S, Keefer, G, Reyna, D, Cabrera-Palmer, B, and Kiff, S. 2010. "Progress Towards Deployable Antineutrino Detectors for Reactor Safeguards". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1009223.
@article{osti_1009223,
title = {Progress Towards Deployable Antineutrino Detectors for Reactor Safeguards},
author = {Bowden, N and Bernstein, A and Dazeley, S and Keefer, G and Reyna, D and Cabrera-Palmer, B and Kiff, S},
abstractNote = {Fission reactors emit large numbers of antineutrinos and this flux may be useful for the measurement of two quantities of interest for reactor safeguards: the reactor's power and plutonium inventory throughout its cycle. The high antineutrino flux and relatively low background rates means that simple cubic meter scale detectors at tens of meters standoff can record hundreds or thousands of antineutrino events per day. Such antineutrino detectors would add online, quasi-real-time bulk material accountancy to the set of reactor monitoring tools available to the IAEA and other safeguards agencies with minimal impact on reactor operations. Between 2003 and 2008, our LLNL/SNL collaboration successfully deployed several prototype safeguards detectors at a commercial reactor in order to test both the method and the practicality of its implementation in the field. Partially on the strength of the results obtained from these deployments, an Experts Meeting was convened by the IAEA Novel Technologies Group in 2008 to assess current antineutrino detection technology and examine how it might be incorporated into the safeguards regime. Here we present a summary of our previous deployments and discuss current work that seeks to provide expanded capabilities suggested by the Experts Panel, in particular aboveground detector operation.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1009223}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 05 00:00:00 EDT 2010},
month = {Mon Apr 05 00:00:00 EDT 2010}
}

Conference:
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