Process Monitoring Techniques for Nuclear Materials Diversion Detection

This paper first reviews the state-of-the-art in process monitoringas applied to nuclear power, chemical industry, and other processfacilities. The example application of using online process monitoringtechnologies for safety-related sensor calibration monitoringis presented. This application summarizes the methods, datarequirements, performance measures, and uncertainty quantificationtechniques from the newly published report NUREG CR6895. The methods are applied to a simulated blend-down operationsimilar to the fissile mass flow monitor for the HEU transparencyimplementation instrumentation in Russia, described byUckan, March-Leuba, and others (INMM 2001). The conventionalprocess monitoring methods are augmented through thedevelopment of algorithms that allow the addition of fissile flowmeasurement instrumentation and through data reconciliationtechniques. The results of the simulation are used to quantitativelyassess the ability of process monitoring techniques to detectchanges in normal operations, diversion of nuclear materials, sensorcalibration drift, anomalies in system devices, and nuclearmaterial enrichment.