Year
2001
Abstract
The Material Accountancy Glove Box Assay System (MAGB) is a neutron coincidence counting system that has been developed under the agreement between Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in order to measure plutonium in the MOX transfer container in the glove box at Plutonium Fuel Production Facility (PFPF) in Japan. The system was installed at PFPF in August 1989 and afterwards it has been using for verification of plutonium in the transfer container by inspectorate during inspection Process equipment to improve its performance has been installed in the PFPF fabrication line. As a result the number of sample required for inspection increased. Since MAGBs were only used, it was anticipated that the reduction of the time of sampling and movement time of nuclear material for verification would be difficult. Furthermore, the sample has to be taken from the transfer containers that contain a large amount of plutonium. Therefore, in order to reduce the time for sampling, time required for the transfer container to arrive at sampling point, and personal radiation exposure, the integrated MAGB system combined with High resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy (HRGS), called AMAGB, was developed. This system was installed at PFPF in August 2000, and then, the functional test and the calibration were carried out in the presence of inspectorate. In the course of these activities, the data that is necessary for evaluating the system were fully acquired. The system is now being in the process of evaluation whether it can be used as an attended safeguards system for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Japan Safeguards Office (JSGO).