A Summary of JAEA’s R&D Programs for Advanced Technologies for Nuclear Security and Safeguards

This paper reports on the recent progress at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) concerning our various research and development (R&D) programs for advanced technologies for the measurement and detection of nuclear material for security and safeguards. These programs are being coordinated through the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN). The work is being conducted by several research teams in JAEA and in cooperation with international partners. One program is based on our development of a neutron detector that uses a ZnS ceramic scintillator material instead of He-3 gas. We are preparing to conduct benchmark experiments to compare the performance of NDA systems that use the new scintillator detectors against the existing NDA systems that use He-3 detectors. Our Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence (NRF) program is developing an NDA technique using NRF for detection and measurement of nuclear material isotopes in fuel assemblies and in melted nuclear fuel debris. This technique uses a high-intensity, monoenergetic gamma ray beam, with its energy tuned to the particular excitation energy of the target isotope. The gamma-ray beam is produced by a Laser Compton Scattering (LCS) system in an energy-recovery linear accelerator (ERL). We have conducted several important NRF experiments this past year. Our Neutron Resonance Densitometry (NRD) program is also being designed to measure the nuclear material in melted nuclear-fuel debris. Our collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory to test a PNAR+SINRD NDA detector on used nuclear fuel assemblies at Fugen has greatly progressed. Results from our mock-up tests and from actual measurements will be presented