Stand-off nuclear reactor monitoring with neutron detectors for safeguards and non-proliferation applications

B. M. Ende (), L. Li, D. Godin and B. Sur
Additional contact information
B. M. Ende: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
L. Li: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
D. Godin: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
B. Sur: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Safeguards measures are employed at nuclear reactor facilities worldwide, to ensure that nuclear material is not diverted from peaceful uses. Typical safeguards measures involve periodic inspections, off-line verification and video surveillance of fuel cycle activities. Real-time verification of the fissile contents via stand-off monitoring can enhance continuity of knowledge for non-traditional reactor types, including research reactors and small modular reactors. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of using large-area neutron detectors for monitoring nuclear reactors at stand-off distances up to 100 m outside reactor shielding, as a potential reactor safeguards tool. Since the neutron yield per unit reactor power depends upon the isotopic composition of the reactor core, declared changes in fissile composition can be verified without accessing the core. The supporting results of experiments conducted at the National Research Universal reactor in Canada, are presented.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09967-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09967-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09967-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().