SURVEY OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND POSSIBLE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

The material accountability program for safeguards purposes depends on measurements which presently consist of destructive analyses, i.e. taking of samples which then are measured in an analytical laboratory. For inventory verif .ation and special surveys some use is made of gamma ray analysis. The USAEC, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other institutions are now supporting development of a variety of passive measurement techniques which may supplement or replace the destructive measurements currently employed. This paper describes the amounts and types of material which will exist during the next five years at various points in the nuclear fuel cycle in US privately owned facilities and indicates what types of measurement techniques (destructive or non-destructive) may be applicable at each point.