VERIFICATION OF NEAR-REAL-TIME MATERIALS ACCOUNTANCY DATA

Most studies of near-real-time materials accountancy have related either to the development of the necessary measurement technology or to an assessment of potential system capabilities. The ultimate usefulness of such systems, however, also requires that the data be independently verifiable by IAEA inspectors. The nature of near-real-time materials accountancy is such that the IAEA inspector has considerable corroborative information related to how many batches there should be or what the approximate nuclear material content should be. This leads to the development of a concept of verification as a continuum rather than a dichotomy, both in terms of the accuracy required and in terms of the time delay acceptable in performing the verifications. The implications of this concept are explored, especially with regard to reprocessing facilities. It is shown that the verification of near-real-time materials accountancy data should be feasible at an acceptable level of effort.