The Ait Facility For Remote Monitoring Of Nuclear Reactors At The Boulby Underground Laboratory

Year
2020
Author(s)
Igor Jovanovic - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Abstract

Antineutrino detectors could complement conventional safeguards methods to determine the power and fissile content of reactors under safeguards independent of knowledge of reactor operations, or even exclude the existence of reactors in wide geographical regions. We describe a new initiative known as the Advanced Instrumentation Testbed (AIT). AIT is a joint United States and United Kingdom project to test and demonstrate a range of antineutrino-based monitoring technologies for detecting nuclear reactors. The US and UK sponsors are conducting an independent evaluation of a number of possible detector designs for possible deployment at AIT. Candidate detectors based on gadolinium-doped water and water-based liquid scintillator detection media are being considered in the effort termed Neutrino Experiment One (NEO). The detectors are based on the inverse beta decay interaction, which produces a signal that can be distinguished from most background signals. The first goal of the experiment will be to determine the dwell-time needed to confirm with high confidence the presence of one or both reactors at a Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station, located 26 kilometers from the AIT, assuming no prior information about the reactors. The second goal will be to determine the dwell-time needed to verify that the measured antineutrino output is consistent with known prior information about the reactor operational schedule, including outages. By measuring signal efficiencies and backgrounds in a controlled but realistic environment, AIT will help explore the prospect of detecting and monitoring smaller reactors at greater standoffs using a scalable water-based technology.