A Measurement Campaign In Support Of Technologies For Disarmament Verification

The performance of measurement technologies play an important role in view of developing a verification strategy in a nuclear disarmament scenario. In recent times, the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) has identified testing technologies and procedures as an important step. In this framework, Belgium proposed and organized at end of 2019 an international exercise at the site of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN) in Mol, Belgium. The aim of the exercise was testing and comparing measurement techniques to be potentially used for the verification of nuclear material in the framework of the dismantlement of nuclear weapons. SCK CEN made available well characterized nuclear material in form of Mixed Oxide fuel previously used to benchmark neutron transport codes and data. The relative content of Pu was up to 14%w and the isotopic abundance of 239Pu was up to 93%w. The amount of nuclear material being assayed could be chosen by the participants as well the type of an optional shielding material. A total of ten measurement teams participated in the exercise deploying different gamma-ray and neutron measurement devices. In this paper we report about the content of the measurement campaign and some results that were obtained when deploying a Low-Energy Germanium detector, a Cadmium Zinc Telluride detector and neutron coincidence 3He based slab counters.