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Title: Studies in support of an SNM cutoff agreement: The PUREX exercise

Conference ·
OSTI ID:102460
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
  3. USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)

On September 23, 1993, President Clinton, in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, called for an international agreement banning the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear explosive purposes. A major element of any verification regime for such an agreement would probably involve inspections of reprocessing plants in Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty weapons states. Many of these are large facilities built in the 1950s with no thought that they would be subject to international inspection. To learn about some of the problems that might be involved in the inspection of such large, old facilities, the Department of Energy, Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation, sponsored a mock inspection exercise at the PUREX plant on the Hanford Site. This exercise examined a series of alternatives for inspections of the PUREX as a model for this type of facility at other locations. A series of conclusions were developed that can be used to guide the development of verification regimes for a cutoff agreement at reprocessing facilities.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
102460
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-95-1993; CONF-950787-26; ON: DE95015295; TRN: 95:020319
Resource Relation:
Conference: 36. annual meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, Palm Desert, CA (United States), 9-12 Jul 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English