Report on the recent IAEA Workshop on Antineutrino Detection

for Safeguards Applications

Andrew MonteithDivision of Technical Support Department of Safeguards

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis2

Outline

• Overview of IAEA activities

• Overview of Novel Technologies work

• Results from the workshop

• Discussion of roadmap for development

• The future of Safeguards

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis3

IAEA Safeguards Objectives

• Safeguards are applied by the IAEA to verify the correctness and completeness of declarations made by States about the exclusively peaceful use of their nuclear material and activities and thereby reducing the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis4

• ~ 900 facilities in 71 countries

• ~ 2,100 inspections/year

• ~ 250 Safeguards Inspectors

• Limited funding ~ €110M regular budget

• Improving implementation through• Additional Protocol

• Integrated Safeguards (IS) Approach

Safeguards Implementation

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis5

IAEA SG Techniques / Equipment in use

Wide variety of safeguards equipment/techniques such as:

•Non Destructive Analysis (NDA)•Containment and Surveillance (C/S)

• Containment verification • Seals • Cameras

•Destructive Analysis (DA) •Environmental Sampling (ES)

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis6

Novel Detection TechnologiesNuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC)

Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC)

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis7

Novel Detection TechnologiesNFC Indicators / Signatures

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Process

“Indicators”Entities that go into making the process operative

“Signatures”Entities produced by the process when it is in operation

Nuclear FuelCycle Process

NFC Processe.g. Enrichment

Reprocessing

Conversion

Reactor

Examples:

• Resources

• Required materials

• Facility design

• Related R&D

• …

Examples:

• Produced materials

• Process by-products

• Energy emanations

• …

• …

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis8

Areas of Interest

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis9

• Direct follow up to Meeting to Evaluate Potential Applicability of Antineutrino Detection – held at IAEA HQ, December 2003

• What were the conclusions of the 2003 meeting?

• What were the recommendations of the 2003 meeting?

Background to the Workshop

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis10

• What has happened since then?• Who attended the 2008 workshop?• Objective of the 2008 workshop• Content of the workshop

Background to the Workshop

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis11

• The meeting concluded that antineutrino detectors have unique abilities to nonintrusively monitor reactor operational status, power and fissile content in near realtime, from outside containment.

• Several detectors, built specifically for safeguards applications, have demonstrated robust, long-term measurements of these metrics in actual installations at operating power reactors, and several more demonstrations are planned.

• It was agreed that the detector design is sufficiently robust and mature as to allow a reusable module to be developed that could be adapted to specific reactors.

Conclusions of the Workshop

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis12

The following recommendations were made by the workshop:• It was recommended that the IAEA consider antineutrino detection and

monitoring in its current R&D program for safeguarding bulk-process reactors;

• It was recommended that the IAEA should also consider antineutrino monitoring in its Safeguards by Design approaches for power and fissile inventory monitoring of new and next generation reactors;

• It was recommended that there should be further interaction between IAEA and the antineutrino research and development (R&D) community, including regular participation of IAEA safeguards departmental staff into international meetings;

• It was recommended that IAEA safeguards departmental staff visit currently deployed and planned neutrino detection installations for safeguards applications;

• It was recommended the IAEA work with experts to consider future reactor designs, using existing simulation codes for reactor evolution and detector response.

Recommendations of the Workshop

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis13

Roadmap

• Things that the Agency can do• Seek out need and prioritize

• Issue ‘SP-1’ to MSSP

• Things that our MSSPs can do• Present a clear vision of what antineutrino

detection can offer the Agency

• Decide on individual state or joint approach from a technical standpoint

• Seek out possible sources of funding and resources (lab + field testing, facilities etc.)

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis14

The future of Safeguards?

• In late 2007, the Director General established a Commission of Eminent Persons to review the current activities and make recommendations regarding the future activities and priorities of the IAEA in the light of recent and expected developments relevant to the Agency’s mission.

Workshop on Applied Antineutrino Physics 2009, March 19-20, Angra dos Reis15

Nuclear power growth

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Growth in inspection effort

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Building towards the future

• Open for discussion