Improvement of Laboratory Capabilities
for Safeguards Measurements of Nuclear
Material

The Directorate-General Energy (ENER) fulfils the safeguards obligations stipulated by the Article 77 of EURATOM treaty for European facilities. For physical verification, samples are taken at different stages of the process and are being analysed either on site or shipped for analysis. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) carries out destructive and non-destructive analyses of nuclear material for ENER on the site of JRC-Karlsruhe and on the site of the reprocessing plant from Orano, at La Hague, France. Safeguarding of nuclear material strongly depends on state of the art analytical performance. It is crucial for inspectors to receive timely analytical results with lowest achievable uncertainty for facilities handling bulk material. The JRC is operating analytical instruments fit for purpose, ensuring continuity and quality control of the generated analytical results. The quality of these results is monitored through participating in inter-laboratory comparison exercises and by the use of traceable reference materials. The JRC strives for continuous improvement through ambitious R&D projects in order to keep up with global evolving technologies and cutting-edge scientific developments. The availability of “off the shelf” analytical techniques adapted to the needs of the small nuclear safeguards community is limited. The JRC’s vision is to keep up with the state of the art technology and succeeded to modernise the infrastructure. Two MAT262 mass spectrometers have been upgraded to state of the art electronics and hardware. The newly refurbished mass spectrometers provide net advantages, which will be presented. Furthermore, new “off the shelf” alpha spectrometry stations have been modified for measurements inside glove boxes, as no other options were available. They replace the outdated equipment making use of modern software and electronics. Maintenance for the foreseeable future is thus guaranteed. The paper below presents the experience of operating the newly up scaled and recycled instruments.