Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse

Coble, Jamie; Meier, Dave

doi:10.1109/TNS.2019.2900583

Title: Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse

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Abstract

Traditional approaches to material control and accounting at used nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities rely in large part on laboratory-based destructive assay of periodic samples taken from key stages. These techniques are highly accurate, but limited inspection frequency may limit the size and operation of a reprocessing facility. Online monitoring techniques using in-line detectors can be applied to fuel reprocessing systems to improve the situational awareness as the facility is operating to provide additional indicators of the evolving state of the facility between normal inspection periods, potentially alerting regulators to the need for additional inspection. The Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor combines medium-resolution gamma detectors with statistical data analysis techniques to monitor reprocessing systems for anomalous conditions resulting from process control issues or malfeasance. The MIP Monitor is attractive for process and safeguards monitoring because of its unsupervised approach to detection and its inherent data obfuscation. This paper presents the application of the MIP Monitor to detect a notional diversion scenario in an operating aqueous reprocessing facility by analyzing gamma spectra with a combination of principal component analysis and the sequential probability ratio test. Gamma spectra collected from the H-Canyon reprocessing facility were analyzed to demonstrate the efficacy of the MIP Monitormore »« less

Authors:

Coble, Jamie ^[1]; Meier, Dave ^[2]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Publication Date:: Thu Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2019

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1497855

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-137488
Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 66; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; safeguards; nuclear fuel reprocessing; gamma spectra; statistical analysis

Citation Formats


                    Coble, Jamie, and Meier, Dave. Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/TNS.2019.2900583.

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                    Coble, Jamie, & Meier, Dave. Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2900583

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                    Coble, Jamie, and Meier, Dave. Thu .  
"Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2900583.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1497855.

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@article{osti_1497855,

  title        = {Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse},

  author       = {Coble, Jamie and Meier, Dave},

  abstractNote = {Traditional approaches to material control and accounting at used nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities rely in large part on laboratory-based destructive assay of periodic samples taken from key stages. These techniques are highly accurate, but limited inspection frequency may limit the size and operation of a reprocessing facility. Online monitoring techniques using in-line detectors can be applied to fuel reprocessing systems to improve the situational awareness as the facility is operating to provide additional indicators of the evolving state of the facility between normal inspection periods, potentially alerting regulators to the need for additional inspection. The Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor combines medium-resolution gamma detectors with statistical data analysis techniques to monitor reprocessing systems for anomalous conditions resulting from process control issues or malfeasance. The MIP Monitor is attractive for process and safeguards monitoring because of its unsupervised approach to detection and its inherent data obfuscation. This paper presents the application of the MIP Monitor to detect a notional diversion scenario in an operating aqueous reprocessing facility by analyzing gamma spectra with a combination of principal component analysis and the sequential probability ratio test. Gamma spectra collected from the H-Canyon reprocessing facility were analyzed to demonstrate the efficacy of the MIP Monitor for detecting notional diversion scenarios. In conclusion, the proposed analysis successfully detected small, protracted diversions, which would alert regulators of the need for additional inspection.},

  doi          = {10.1109/TNS.2019.2900583},

  journal      = {IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science},

  number       = 4,

  volume       = 66,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2019},

  month        = {Thu Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2019}

}

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Monitoring Aqueous Reprocessing Systems for Detection of Facility Misuse

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