Year
2012
Abstract
Despite their very small interaction cross-section, the enormous flux of antineutrinos leaving a fission reactor can be used to follow certain operational parameters of that reactor. Relatively simple cubic meter scale detectors at tens of meters standoff can record hundreds or thousands of antineutrino events per day – numbers sufficient to constrain total reactor power output and track core isotopic evolution, e.g. Pu ingrowth. This measurement technique is inherently continuous, unattended and non-intrusive. 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. In this work, we seek to directly demonstrate and assess the applicability of antineutrino detection technology to the safeguarding of On-Load Refueled and Bulk Process Reactors (OLR & BPR). We have developed a detector that incorporates many optimizations compared to earlier prototype designs and will consequently have much improved antineutrino detection efficiency. Here we describe the results of a full-scale commissioning demonstration and discuss the planned deployment of the device at a CANDU6 OLR.