The Third U.S.-German Workshop on Near-Real-Time

The discussions of the third workshop on near-real-time accounting (NRTA), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the German Bundesministerium fur Forschung und Technologic, are summarized. Other approaches to estimate the in-process inventory on a timely basis were also discussed. Since the first of these workshops in 1986, the IAEE and Euratom have begun to use NRTA at reprocessing facilities, and considerable experience has been obtained in designing and implementing the technique. Topics discussed include practical performance of NRTA techniques in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan; progress in statistical analysis and applications; techniques being developed for inspector measurements; process monitoring to verify facility design features of safeguards concern; and authentication of information provided by facility instrumentation used by the inspectors.