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Title: Unattended Environmental Sampling and Laser-based Enrichment Assay for Detection of Undeclared HEU Production in Enrichment Plants

Abstract

Nuclear power is enjoying rapid growth as government energy policies and public demand shift toward carbon neutral energy production. Accompanying the growth in nuclear power is the requirement for increased nuclear fuel production, including a significant expansion in uranium enrichment capacity. Essential to the success of the nuclear energy renaissance is the development and implementation of sustainable, proliferation-resistant nuclear power generation. Unauthorized production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) remains the primary proliferation concern for modern gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). While to date there has been no indication of declared, safeguarded GCEPs producing HEU, the massive separative work unit (SWU) processing power of modern GCEPs presents a significant latent risk of nuclear breakout and suggests the need for more timely detection of potential facility misuse. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing an unattended safeguards instrument, combining continuous aerosol particulate collection with uranium isotope assay, to provide timely HEU detection within a GCEP. This approach is based on laser vaporization of aerosol particulates, followed by laser spectroscopy to characterize the uranium enrichment level. We demonstrate enrichment assay, with relative isotope abundance uncertainty <5%, on individual micron-sized particles that are trace components within a mixture ‘background’ particles

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1006301
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-72107
TRN: US1101222
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Proceedings of the Pacific Northwest International Conference on Global Nuclear Security - The Decade Ahead, April 11-16, 2010, Portland, OR.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; ABUNDANCE; AEROSOLS; CARBON; CENTRIFUGE ENRICHMENT PLANTS; DETECTION; HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM; IMPLEMENTATION; ISOTOPE SEPARATION; LASER SPECTROSCOPY; LASERS; MIXTURES; NUCLEAR ENERGY; NUCLEAR FUELS; NUCLEAR POWER; PARTICULATES; PROLIFERATION; SAFEGUARDS; SAMPLING; URANIUM ISOTOPES; Laser ablation

Citation Formats

Anheier, Norman C, and Bushaw, Bruce A. Unattended Environmental Sampling and Laser-based Enrichment Assay for Detection of Undeclared HEU Production in Enrichment Plants. United States: N. p., 2010. Web.
Anheier, Norman C, & Bushaw, Bruce A. Unattended Environmental Sampling and Laser-based Enrichment Assay for Detection of Undeclared HEU Production in Enrichment Plants. United States.
Anheier, Norman C, and Bushaw, Bruce A. 2010. "Unattended Environmental Sampling and Laser-based Enrichment Assay for Detection of Undeclared HEU Production in Enrichment Plants". United States.
@article{osti_1006301,
title = {Unattended Environmental Sampling and Laser-based Enrichment Assay for Detection of Undeclared HEU Production in Enrichment Plants},
author = {Anheier, Norman C and Bushaw, Bruce A},
abstractNote = {Nuclear power is enjoying rapid growth as government energy policies and public demand shift toward carbon neutral energy production. Accompanying the growth in nuclear power is the requirement for increased nuclear fuel production, including a significant expansion in uranium enrichment capacity. Essential to the success of the nuclear energy renaissance is the development and implementation of sustainable, proliferation-resistant nuclear power generation. Unauthorized production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) remains the primary proliferation concern for modern gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). While to date there has been no indication of declared, safeguarded GCEPs producing HEU, the massive separative work unit (SWU) processing power of modern GCEPs presents a significant latent risk of nuclear breakout and suggests the need for more timely detection of potential facility misuse. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing an unattended safeguards instrument, combining continuous aerosol particulate collection with uranium isotope assay, to provide timely HEU detection within a GCEP. This approach is based on laser vaporization of aerosol particulates, followed by laser spectroscopy to characterize the uranium enrichment level. We demonstrate enrichment assay, with relative isotope abundance uncertainty <5%, on individual micron-sized particles that are trace components within a mixture ‘background’ particles},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1006301}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010},
month = {Thu Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010}
}

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