Year
2011
Abstract
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has established international safeguards standards for fissionable material at spent fuel reprocessing plants to ensure that significant quantities of nuclear material are not diverted from these facilities. Currently, methods to verify material control and accountancy (MC&A) at these facilities require timeconsuming and resource-intensive destructive assay (DA). The time delay between sampling and subsequent DA provides a potential opportunity to divert the material out of the appropriate chemical stream. Leveraging new on-line nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques in conjunction with the traditional and highly precise DA methods may provide a more timely, cost-effective and resource efficient means for MC&A verification at such facilities. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing on-line NDA process monitoring technologies, including the Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor. The MIP Monitor uses gamma spectroscopy and pattern recognition software to identify off-normal conditions in process streams. Recent efforts have been made to explore the basic limits of using multivariate analysis techniques on gamma-ray spectra. This paper will provide an overview of the methods and report our on-going efforts to develop and demonstrate the technology