Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders

Canion, B.; Jarman, K.; McDonald, B.; Dreyer, J.; Drury, O.; Labov, S.; Lawson, G.; Forrestor, J.; Myjak, M.; Zalavadia, Z.; Nelson, K.; Seilhan, B.; Pfund, D.

doi:10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020

Title: Standoff enrichment analysis of UF₆ cylinders

Abstract

We investigate a new safeguards approach for verification of uranium processing operations via standoff measurement of UF₆ cylinder transports entering and leaving a facility. Current safeguards verification at facilities with UF₆ cylinders includes attended enrichment measurements of several randomly-selected cylinders using handheld instruments with inspection of all the cylinders typically only once a year. This approach requires significant inspector effort and can only be performed intermittently. Here we explore an unattended, multi-sensor enrichment measurement system that can operate continuously on cylinders in motion. Such an approach could be used to enhance continuity of knowledge by verifying that all shipments entering and leaving a facility are consistent with declared operations. The challenges in developing a standoff enrichment technique include limited statistical significance of the collected data, and interpreting the complex signatures from a shipment of UF₆ cylinders. These signatures vary with cylinder properties (e.g. the fuel cycle history, cylinder history, material distribution, material age, etc.) and measurement conditions (e.g. speed and distance of vehicle, detector response, cylinder orientation, attenuation from overpack and vehicle, etc.). We demonstrate that we can extract useful enrichment signatures from standoff measurements of UF₆ cylinders entering and leaving a facility. Our initial analysis demonstrates a measurable differencemore »« less

Authors:

Canion, B. ^[1]; Jarman, K. ^[2]; McDonald, B. ^[2]; Dreyer, J. ^[1]; Drury, O. ^[1]; Labov, S. ^[1]; Lawson, G. ^[2]; Forrestor, J. ^[2]; Myjak, M. ^[2]; Zalavadia, Z. ^[2]; Nelson, K. ^[1]; Seilhan, B. ^[1]; Pfund, D. ^[2]

Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation

OSTI Identifier:: 1491259

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1636233

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-138534
Journal ID: ISSN 0168-9002; PII: S0168900218313354

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; AC52-07NA27344

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 954; Journal ID: ISSN 0168-9002

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION; safeguards; UF6 cylinder; vehicle tracking

Citation Formats


                    Canion, B., Jarman, K., McDonald, B., Dreyer, J., Drury, O., Labov, S., Lawson, G., Forrestor, J., Myjak, M., Zalavadia, Z., Nelson, K., Seilhan, B., and Pfund, D. Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020.

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                    Canion, B., Jarman, K., McDonald, B., Dreyer, J., Drury, O., Labov, S., Lawson, G., Forrestor, J., Myjak, M., Zalavadia, Z., Nelson, K., Seilhan, B., & Pfund, D. Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020

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                    Canion, B., Jarman, K., McDonald, B., Dreyer, J., Drury, O., Labov, S., Lawson, G., Forrestor, J., Myjak, M., Zalavadia, Z., Nelson, K., Seilhan, B., and Pfund, D. Fri .  
"Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1491259.

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@article{osti_1491259,

  title        = {Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders},

  author       = {Canion, B. and Jarman, K. and McDonald, B. and Dreyer, J. and Drury, O. and Labov, S. and Lawson, G. and Forrestor, J. and Myjak, M. and Zalavadia, Z. and Nelson, K. and Seilhan, B. and Pfund, D.},

  abstractNote = {We investigate a new safeguards approach for verification of uranium processing operations via standoff measurement of UF6 cylinder transports entering and leaving a facility. Current safeguards verification at facilities with UF6 cylinders includes attended enrichment measurements of several randomly-selected cylinders using handheld instruments with inspection of all the cylinders typically only once a year. This approach requires significant inspector effort and can only be performed intermittently. Here we explore an unattended, multi-sensor enrichment measurement system that can operate continuously on cylinders in motion. Such an approach could be used to enhance continuity of knowledge by verifying that all shipments entering and leaving a facility are consistent with declared operations. The challenges in developing a standoff enrichment technique include limited statistical significance of the collected data, and interpreting the complex signatures from a shipment of UF6 cylinders. These signatures vary with cylinder properties (e.g. the fuel cycle history, cylinder history, material distribution, material age, etc.) and measurement conditions (e.g. speed and distance of vehicle, detector response, cylinder orientation, attenuation from overpack and vehicle, etc.). We demonstrate that we can extract useful enrichment signatures from standoff measurements of UF6 cylinders entering and leaving a facility. Our initial analysis demonstrates a measurable difference in enrichment-related signatures from a cylinder in motion, measured with modest detection efficiency from several meters away. We also demonstrate that the inclusion of vehicle tracking increases the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of our radiation signatures, and decreases uncertainty of parameters needed for enrichment analysis, e.g. distance and velocity.},

  doi          = {10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020},

  journal      = {Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 954,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018},

  month        = {Fri Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018}

}

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https://doi.org/10.1016/J.NIMA.2018.10.020

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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1: Examples of UF6 cylinders truck shipment data. (Left) Two consecutive shipments of 4 UF6 cylinders per truck, including data from our radar, a 4′′ × 16′′ NaI detector, and a two-tube He-3 thermal neutron detector. (Right) Spectrum from three 4′′ × 16′′ NaI detectors measuring a shipment ofmore »

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Title: Standoff enrichment analysis of UF6 cylinders

Abstract

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Title: Standoff enrichment analysis of UF₆ cylinders