Noble Gas Atmospheric Monitoring for International Safeguards at Reprocessing Facilities

Year
1997
Author(s)
Charles Nakhleh - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jane Poths - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Bryan L. Fearey - Los Alamos National Laboratory
William D. Stanbro - Los Alamos National Laboratory
R.T. Perry - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Willam B. Wilson - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract
The use of environmental sampling is a major component of the improvements of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards being carried otu under Programme 93+2. Nonradioactive noble gas isotopic measurements in the effluent stream of large reporcessing facilities may provide useful confirmatory information on the burnup and reactor type of the spent fuel undergoing reprocessing. We have taken and analyzed stack samples at an operating facility. The data show clear fission signals. We are currently applying a maximum-likelihood estimation procedure to determine the fuel burnup from these data. We anticipate that the general features involved in the stable noble gas problem--calculation of parameters of interest from the environmental data--will be present in all environmental sampling problems. Our methodology should therefore be widely applicable.