Detecting Undeclared Reprocessing Activities through Sampling Analysis

Under an FMCT, onei mportant verification focus will be on spent fuel reprocessing plantTs.h is paper examines methodsf or determining from high-level waste (HLW) sampling the bum-upo f spent fuel , plutonium isotopic composition ,the irradiation time and discharge time through measurements of ratios of fission product and actinide isotopic ratios.W e findt hat, for recent plutonium production activities, these important quantities can all be determined to reasonable accuracy. This will helpd etermine whether states' declaration of spent fuel reprocessed is accurate. Meanwhile, we find that sampling analysis of old HLW tanks need not reveal sensitive information relating to past production of plutonium at former military plutonium production facilities. The methods examined in this paper can therefore serve as an effective and militarily non-intrusive measure for verification of an FMCT.