Development Of Delayed Gamma-ray Spectroscopy For Nuclear Safeguards (1): Project Overview

Year
2021
Author(s)
Douglas Chase Rodriguez - Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Kamel Abbas - European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Mitsuo Koizumi - Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Stefan Kopecky - European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Hee-Jae Lee - Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Stefan Nonneman - European Commission
Stephan Oberstedt - European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Bent Pedersen - European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Fabiana Rossi - Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Peter J Schillebeeckx - European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Tohn Takahashi - Japan Atomic Energy Agency
File Attachment
a379.pdf465.35 KB
Abstract
Present safeguards verification of spent nuclear fuel solution in reprocessing plants utilizes mainly destructive analysis techniques to obtain the nuclide content. However, alternative non-destructive assay (NDA) methods could help to improve the number of verified samples and the speed of verification and reduce generated waste and reference material dependence. Toward this goal, the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) started developing Delayed Gamma-ray Spectroscopy (DGS) as an NDA technique. DGS utilizes neutrons to induce fission in the sample followed by a measurement of gamma rays emitted by the short-lived fission products as they decay. The primary DGS outcome is to evaluate the composition using the ratio of these gamma-ray peaks and the relative fissile-nuclide contribution. Our parallel primary goals are to efficiently analyze the sample and to develop a compact instrument to be easily installable into analytical laboratories. Starting in 2015, the JAEA/ISCN initiated a collaboration with the European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC/JRC) to collect DGS experimental data. The JAEA-JRC collaboration began testing JAEA-developed DGS instruments in 2018 to determine requirements of the final design for deployment. This work will describe the status and overall progress of this DGS development followed by a discussion of future plans toward final deployment. Highlights of each development phase will be provided as introductions to the other presentations in this series, including a description of our next demonstration workshop.