Development of Prototype National Nuclear Forensics Library at Japan Atomic Energy Agency

In 2010, the Japanese Government issued the national statement at Nuclear Security Summit (Washington D.C., USA) to develop technologies related to measurement and detection of nuclear materials for nuclear forensics within approximate three-year timeframe, and to share them with the international community, in order to contribute to strengthening the nuclear security system. In response to this statement, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) that possesses sufficient analytical capabilities to fulfil this nuclear forensics mission has started R&D on nuclear forensics technology since Japanese Fiscal Year of 2011. One of main topics of the R&D project is to develop national nuclear forensics library (NNFL) which consists of database and evaluation methodology for interpretation of the attributions of nuclear and other radioactive materials. Recently, the development of nuclear forensics library has been carried out in some countries and the concept of NNFL with point-of-contact is the most popular in current international society. The NNFL project at JAEA also follows this concept. JAEA has continued to develop a prototype system of NNFL based on data of the nuclear and other radioactive materials that JAEA has possessed in the past research activities. A development of prototype nuclear material database (NMDB) was almost completed with its basic data handling system. Data compiling on the JAEA NMDB has been continued. JAEA also participated in the virtual table top exercise on NNFL named Galaxy Serpent and has continued to study attribution evaluation methodologies using the data in a NNFL. This paper presents the current status and future prospects on the prototype NNFL development at JAEA.