Year
2011
Abstract
Fission reactors emit large numbers of antineutrinos and this flux may be useful for the measurement of two quantities of interest for reactor safeguards: the reactor's power and plutonium inventory throughout its cycle. The high antineutrino flux and relatively low background rates means that simple cubic meter scale detectors at tens of meters standoff can record hundreds or thousands of antineutrino events per day. Such antineutrino detectors would add online, quasi-real-time bulk material accountancy to the set of reactor monitoring tools available to the IAEA and other safeguards agencies via a continuous, unattended and non-intrusive measurement technique. Between 2003 and 2008, a LLNL/SNL collaboration successfully deployed several prototype safeguards detectors at a commercial Pressurized Light Water Reactor (PLWR) in order to test both the method and the practicality of its implementation in the field. The success of these deployments led the IAEA Novel Technologies Unit to convene an Experts Meeting in 2008 to assess current antineutrino detection technology and examine how it might be incorporated into the safeguards regime. One promising area identified was the ability to monitor On-Load Refueled Reactor (OLR) and Bulk Process Reactor (BPR) operations. To directly demonstrate and assess the applicability of antineutrino detection technology in this context, we are developing a device for deployment at a CANDU6 OLR. The detector being developed incorporates many optimizations compared to earlier prototype designs and will consequently have much improved antineutrino detection efficiency. Once deployed at the Pt. Lepreau Generating Station, not only will this detector perform the first monitoring of the equilibrium operation of an ORR, it will also have a unique opportunity to measure the isotopic evolution of a fresh core to the equilibrium state.