Performance Analysis of Nuclear Materials Accounting Systems

Techniques for analyzing the level of performance of nuclear materials accounting systems in terms of the four performance measures, total amount of loss, loss-detection time, loss-detection probability, and false-alarm probability, are presented. These techniques are especially useful for analyzing the expected performance of nearreal- time (dynamic) accounting systems. A conservative estimate of system performance is provided by the CUSUM (cumulative summation of materials balances) test. Graphical displays, called performance surfaces, are developed as convenient toolsFor representing systems performance, and examples from a recent safeguards study of a nuclear fuels reprocessing plant are given.