Pub Date : 2017-01-02DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2017.1275320
M. Englert, F. Frieß, M. Ramana
ABSTRACT Proponents of high temperature gas cooled reactors argue that the reactor type is inherently safe and that severe accidents with core damage and radioactive releases cannot occur. The argument is primarily based on the safety features of the special form of the fuel. This paper examines some of the assumptions underlying the safety case for high temperature gas cooled reactors and highlights ways in which there could be fuel failure even during normal operations of the reactor; these failures serve to create a radioactive inventory that could be released under accident conditions. It then describes the severe accident scenarios that are the greatest challenge to high temperature gas cooled reactor safety: ingress of air or water into the core. Then, the paper offers an overview of what could be learned from the experiences with high temperature gas cooled reactors that have been built; their operating history indicates differences between actual operations and theoretical behavior. Finally, the paper describes some of the multiple priorities that often drive reactor design, and how safety is compromised in the process of optimizing other priorities.
{"title":"Accident Scenarios Involving Pebble Bed High Temperature Reactors","authors":"M. Englert, F. Frieß, M. Ramana","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2017.1275320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2017.1275320","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Proponents of high temperature gas cooled reactors argue that the reactor type is inherently safe and that severe accidents with core damage and radioactive releases cannot occur. The argument is primarily based on the safety features of the special form of the fuel. This paper examines some of the assumptions underlying the safety case for high temperature gas cooled reactors and highlights ways in which there could be fuel failure even during normal operations of the reactor; these failures serve to create a radioactive inventory that could be released under accident conditions. It then describes the severe accident scenarios that are the greatest challenge to high temperature gas cooled reactor safety: ingress of air or water into the core. Then, the paper offers an overview of what could be learned from the experiences with high temperature gas cooled reactors that have been built; their operating history indicates differences between actual operations and theoretical behavior. Finally, the paper describes some of the multiple priorities that often drive reactor design, and how safety is compromised in the process of optimizing other priorities.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"50 1","pages":"42 - 55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2017-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74978173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-09-01DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1235391
F. Frieß, M. Kütt
ABSTRACT In 2000, Russia and the United States signed the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement to dispose of 34 tons of declared excess weapon plutonium each. A 2010 amendment allows Russia to dispose of its weapon-grade plutonium as MOX fuel in its BN-600 and BN-800 fast reactors with the condition that 30 years after irradiation the spent fuel must still emit at least one sievert per hour. Using depletion simulations for the BN-800 reactor, this note presents dose rates for fuel and blanket materials after different irradiation and cooling times. After the full irradiation time of 420 days, the fuel fulfills the disposition criteria. This is not true for shorter irradiation times, however. Furthermore, the dose rate from blanket elements, which breed weapon grade plutonium, declines even more quickly after irradiation. For some blanket element positions, the spent fuel standard is not fulfilled after 960 days of irradiation. To provide confidence in the agreement, Russia, the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency should agree on monitoring of reactor power and irradiation times for plutonium disposition in such fast reactors.
{"title":"BN-800: Spent Fuel Dose Rates and the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement","authors":"F. Frieß, M. Kütt","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1235391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1235391","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In 2000, Russia and the United States signed the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement to dispose of 34 tons of declared excess weapon plutonium each. A 2010 amendment allows Russia to dispose of its weapon-grade plutonium as MOX fuel in its BN-600 and BN-800 fast reactors with the condition that 30 years after irradiation the spent fuel must still emit at least one sievert per hour. Using depletion simulations for the BN-800 reactor, this note presents dose rates for fuel and blanket materials after different irradiation and cooling times. After the full irradiation time of 420 days, the fuel fulfills the disposition criteria. This is not true for shorter irradiation times, however. Furthermore, the dose rate from blanket elements, which breed weapon grade plutonium, declines even more quickly after irradiation. For some blanket element positions, the spent fuel standard is not fulfilled after 960 days of irradiation. To provide confidence in the agreement, Russia, the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency should agree on monitoring of reactor power and irradiation times for plutonium disposition in such fast reactors.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"28 1","pages":"204 - 209"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91271250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-09-01DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1235375
M. Montesano, B. Loh, T. Chong
The present issue of SOJOURN features five research articles bearing on religion, on archaeology and heritage, and on the on-the-ground realities of ASEAN integration. The contributions touching on religion treat extra-regional contacts, official accommodation of beliefs long concealed as unorthodox and the intersection of religious practice and ethnic identity. With great erudition, John Chen examines Chinese Muslims’ interest in Southeast Asia as an important part of the wider Islamic world during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on scholarship on materia medica and on the remarkable story of the Chinese Islamic South Seas Delegation’s visit to Malaya, Chen illuminates a clear interest among Chinese Muslims in Islamic lands beyond just those of the Arab Middle East. He understands that interest in “civilizational” terms. Philippe Peycam’s article examines the history and dynamics of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of the Historic Site of Angkor and assesses its negotiation among international, national and local interests as those interests intersect at a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He focuses on the interaction with Cambodian authorities of the representatives of France and Japan, which have co-chaired that committee, and expresses scepticism about the usefulness of the Angkor committee as a model for effective stewardship of World Heritage Sites in other parts of the world. In a second article on Cambodia, Emiko Stock offers a lively and iconoclastic treatment of the Cham rituals of the Imam San Mawlid and the Mamun possession ceremony to interrogate the ethnic categorization that would distinguish Cham from Khmer. Her article makes an important, and extremely enjoyable, contribution to our efforts to rethink conceptions of identity, ethnicity and history in contemporary Southeast Asia.
本期《SOJOURN》刊载了五篇研究文章，内容涉及宗教、考古和遗产以及东盟一体化的实际情况。涉及宗教的贡献涉及区域外的接触、长期被隐藏为非正统的信仰的官方适应以及宗教实践和种族认同的交集。约翰·陈以其渊博的学识考察了20世纪上半叶中国穆斯林对东南亚的兴趣，认为东南亚是更广泛的伊斯兰世界的重要组成部分。陈着重于本草学术和中国伊斯兰南海代表团访问马来亚的非凡故事，阐明了中国穆斯林对伊斯兰土地的明显兴趣，而不仅仅是阿拉伯中东地区。他理解这种对“文明”的兴趣。Philippe Peycam的文章考察了吴哥古迹保护国际协调委员会的历史和动态，并评估了其在国际、国家和地方利益之间的谈判，因为这些利益在联合国教科文组织世界遗产中相交。他着重讨论了法国和日本代表与柬埔寨当局的互动，这两个国家是该委员会的共同主席，他对吴哥委员会能否作为有效管理世界其他地区世界遗产的典范表示怀疑。在另一篇关于柬埔寨的文章中，Emiko Stock生动地、破除传统地描述了占族伊訇圣毛利德(Imam San Mawlid)的仪式，以及马蒙(Mamun)的占有仪式，以质问将占族与高棉区分开来的族群分类。她的文章为我们重新思考当代东南亚的身份、种族和历史概念做出了重要而令人愉快的贡献。
{"title":"Editors' Note","authors":"M. Montesano, B. Loh, T. Chong","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1235375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1235375","url":null,"abstract":"The present issue of SOJOURN features five research articles bearing on religion, on archaeology and heritage, and on the on-the-ground realities of ASEAN integration. The contributions touching on religion treat extra-regional contacts, official accommodation of beliefs long concealed as unorthodox and the intersection of religious practice and ethnic identity. With great erudition, John Chen examines Chinese Muslims’ interest in Southeast Asia as an important part of the wider Islamic world during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on scholarship on materia medica and on the remarkable story of the Chinese Islamic South Seas Delegation’s visit to Malaya, Chen illuminates a clear interest among Chinese Muslims in Islamic lands beyond just those of the Arab Middle East. He understands that interest in “civilizational” terms. Philippe Peycam’s article examines the history and dynamics of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of the Historic Site of Angkor and assesses its negotiation among international, national and local interests as those interests intersect at a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He focuses on the interaction with Cambodian authorities of the representatives of France and Japan, which have co-chaired that committee, and expresses scepticism about the usefulness of the Angkor committee as a model for effective stewardship of World Heritage Sites in other parts of the world. In a second article on Cambodia, Emiko Stock offers a lively and iconoclastic treatment of the Cham rituals of the Imam San Mawlid and the Mamun possession ceremony to interrogate the ethnic categorization that would distinguish Cham from Khmer. Her article makes an important, and extremely enjoyable, contribution to our efforts to rethink conceptions of identity, ethnicity and history in contemporary Southeast Asia.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"24 1","pages":"139 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78149857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-09-01DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1237661
M. Ramana, A. Nayyar, M. Schoeppner
ABSTRACT Tanks holding liquid high level waste from reprocessing spent fuel have large inventories of highly radioactive materials. These tanks could potentially be damaged by a variety of chemical explosions, leading to the dispersion of a significant fraction of their radioactive contents. This article describes some of the different chemical explosions that could occur and examines how such explosions could occur at the Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant in India, which likely stores a large volume of high level liquid waste because vitrification of that waste did not begin until more than 15 years after the plant began operating in 1998. The atmospheric dispersion of the hypothetical radioactive release is modeled using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model developed by the Air Research Laboratory of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The results suggest that the modeled accident scenario would lead to nearly 97,000 cancers, with roughly 47,000 of these being fatal. Larger radioactive releases are possible and would lead to proportionately higher incidence of cancer and cancer-caused mortality.
{"title":"Nuclear High-level Waste Tank Explosions: Potential Causes and Impacts of a Hypothetical Accident at India's Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant","authors":"M. Ramana, A. Nayyar, M. Schoeppner","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1237661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1237661","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Tanks holding liquid high level waste from reprocessing spent fuel have large inventories of highly radioactive materials. These tanks could potentially be damaged by a variety of chemical explosions, leading to the dispersion of a significant fraction of their radioactive contents. This article describes some of the different chemical explosions that could occur and examines how such explosions could occur at the Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant in India, which likely stores a large volume of high level liquid waste because vitrification of that waste did not begin until more than 15 years after the plant began operating in 1998. The atmospheric dispersion of the hypothetical radioactive release is modeled using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model developed by the Air Research Laboratory of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The results suggest that the modeled accident scenario would lead to nearly 97,000 cancers, with roughly 47,000 of these being fatal. Larger radioactive releases are possible and would lead to proportionately higher incidence of cancer and cancer-caused mortality.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"129 1","pages":"174 - 203"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77643522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-09-01DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1235382
F. V. von Hippel, M. Schoeppner
ABSTRACT This article reviews the case of the spent fuel fire that almost happened at Fukushima in March 2011, and shows that, had the wind blown the released radioactivity toward Tokyo, 35 million people might have required relocation. It then reviews the findings by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2013 that the consequences of a loss-of-water event could be drastically reduced if spent fuel were moved to dry storage after 5 years of pool cooling but that the probability of a spent fuel pool fire is too low to make this a requirement. Our atmospheric dispersion and deposition calculations using HYSPLIT for hypothetical releases from the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania find average interdicted areas and populations requiring relocation larger than NRC estimates presented to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and support the NAS findings of errors and omissions in the NRC's cost-benefit calculations. Political pressures from industry on the NRC may be biasing its analyses toward regulatory inaction.
{"title":"Reducing the Danger from Fires in Spent Fuel Pools","authors":"F. V. von Hippel, M. Schoeppner","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1235382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1235382","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article reviews the case of the spent fuel fire that almost happened at Fukushima in March 2011, and shows that, had the wind blown the released radioactivity toward Tokyo, 35 million people might have required relocation. It then reviews the findings by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2013 that the consequences of a loss-of-water event could be drastically reduced if spent fuel were moved to dry storage after 5 years of pool cooling but that the probability of a spent fuel pool fire is too low to make this a requirement. Our atmospheric dispersion and deposition calculations using HYSPLIT for hypothetical releases from the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania find average interdicted areas and populations requiring relocation larger than NRC estimates presented to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and support the NAS findings of errors and omissions in the NRC's cost-benefit calculations. Political pressures from industry on the NRC may be biasing its analyses toward regulatory inaction.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"5 1","pages":"141 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76062955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-05-03DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1184529
L. Kim, R. Jungwirth, G. Renda, E. Wolfart, G. Cojazzi
ABSTRACT This preliminary study considers the feasibility of cooling a small nuclear reactor (tens of megawatts thermal) with a well doublet that taps groundwater and injects heated fluid beneath the surface. The associated signatures differ substantially from those of conventional cooling systems. Instead of a plume of steam or outflows of heated water, only wellheads may be observed at a site without access to surface water. Other potential signatures include surface thermal anomalies, geomorphological alterations, induced seismicity, and altered groundwater chemistry. As these signatures may be faint and lag reactor operations, an understanding of the system's operating principles and telltales of hydrogeological conditions conducive to groundwater flow become more critical for detection of such reactor by remote sensing.
{"title":"Potential Signatures and the Means of Detecting a Hypothetical Ground Source Cooled Nuclear Reactor","authors":"L. Kim, R. Jungwirth, G. Renda, E. Wolfart, G. Cojazzi","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1184529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1184529","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This preliminary study considers the feasibility of cooling a small nuclear reactor (tens of megawatts thermal) with a well doublet that taps groundwater and injects heated fluid beneath the surface. The associated signatures differ substantially from those of conventional cooling systems. Instead of a plume of steam or outflows of heated water, only wellheads may be observed at a site without access to surface water. Other potential signatures include surface thermal anomalies, geomorphological alterations, induced seismicity, and altered groundwater chemistry. As these signatures may be faint and lag reactor operations, an understanding of the system's operating principles and telltales of hydrogeological conditions conducive to groundwater flow become more critical for detection of such reactor by remote sensing.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"67 1","pages":"113 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83942360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-05-03DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1184533
Andrew Brown, A. Glaser
ABSTRACT The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines uranium with a 235U isotope concentration of 20 percent as the threshold between low-enriched uranium (LEU) and highly enriched uranium (HEU), and as a significant waypoint on the path towards weapon-grade uranium (typically above 90 percent 235U enrichment). The distinction between LEU and HEU is widely used in shaping nonproliferation policy, and it has featured prominently in commentary over Iran's nuclear program and the series of Nuclear Security Summits that since 2010 have sought to minimize civilian stockpiles and use of HEU. Yet the origin of this threshold is obscure, dating back 6 decades. This research note traces the political origin and the technical basis for this limit.
{"title":"On the Origins and Significance of the Limit Demarcating Low-Enriched Uranium from Highly Enriched Uranium","authors":"Andrew Brown, A. Glaser","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1184533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1184533","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines uranium with a 235U isotope concentration of 20 percent as the threshold between low-enriched uranium (LEU) and highly enriched uranium (HEU), and as a significant waypoint on the path towards weapon-grade uranium (typically above 90 percent 235U enrichment). The distinction between LEU and HEU is widely used in shaping nonproliferation policy, and it has featured prominently in commentary over Iran's nuclear program and the series of Nuclear Security Summits that since 2010 have sought to minimize civilian stockpiles and use of HEU. Yet the origin of this threshold is obscure, dating back 6 decades. This research note traces the political origin and the technical basis for this limit.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"8 1","pages":"131 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72874180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-05-03DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1184528
Ryan Snyder
ABSTRACT Long-standing efforts to develop a commercially viable laser-based process for uranium enrichment, initially with atomic and later molecular isotope separation, have had limited success. This article discusses a model for a third generation of laser enrichment technology where CO2 laser light is Raman scattered to generate 16 μm photons that excite a vibrational mode in uranium-235 hexafluoride molecules within an adiabatically expanding free carrier gas jet, allowing for the partial separation of uranium isotopes by condensation repression. The SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation) process being developed as part of the Global Laser Enrichment project may be one example of this separation technique. An ideal, asymmetric cascade for enriching uranium to weapon-grade levels is presented, and an analysis of the minimum laser performance requirements is included. Optimal running parameters, physical space constraints, and energy efficiency estimates are discussed. An assessment of the technical skills required is also provided. Finally, material available in an online supplement discusses possible lasers that may be utilized in such a process, and offers an introduction to dimer formation, a laser-based enrichment cascade, and a model for estimating the enrichment factor.
{"title":"A Proliferation Assessment of Third Generation Laser Uranium Enrichment Technology","authors":"Ryan Snyder","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1184528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1184528","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Long-standing efforts to develop a commercially viable laser-based process for uranium enrichment, initially with atomic and later molecular isotope separation, have had limited success. This article discusses a model for a third generation of laser enrichment technology where CO2 laser light is Raman scattered to generate 16 μm photons that excite a vibrational mode in uranium-235 hexafluoride molecules within an adiabatically expanding free carrier gas jet, allowing for the partial separation of uranium isotopes by condensation repression. The SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation) process being developed as part of the Global Laser Enrichment project may be one example of this separation technique. An ideal, asymmetric cascade for enriching uranium to weapon-grade levels is presented, and an analysis of the minimum laser performance requirements is included. Optimal running parameters, physical space constraints, and energy efficiency estimates are discussed. An assessment of the technical skills required is also provided. Finally, material available in an online supplement discusses possible lasers that may be utilized in such a process, and offers an introduction to dimer formation, a laser-based enrichment cascade, and a model for estimating the enrichment factor.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"57 1","pages":"68 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79038386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-04-16DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2016.1184531
B. Cogswell, P. Huber
ABSTRACT The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement between the United States and Russia makes arrangements for the disposal of 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium. Under this agreement Russia plans to dispose of its excess stocks by processing the plutonium into fuel for fast breeder reactors. To meet the disposition requirements this fuel would be burned while the fast reactors are run as burners, i.e., without a natural uranium blanket that can be used to breed plutonium surrounding the core. This article discusses the potential application of antineutrino monitoring to the verification of the presence of a breeding blanket. It is found that a 36 kg antineutrino detector, exploiting coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and made of silicon could determine the presence of a breeding blanket at a liquid sodium cooled fast reactor at the 95 percent confidence level within 90 days.
{"title":"Detection of Breeding Blankets Using Antineutrinos","authors":"B. Cogswell, P. Huber","doi":"10.1080/08929882.2016.1184531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2016.1184531","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement between the United States and Russia makes arrangements for the disposal of 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium. Under this agreement Russia plans to dispose of its excess stocks by processing the plutonium into fuel for fast breeder reactors. To meet the disposition requirements this fuel would be burned while the fast reactors are run as burners, i.e., without a natural uranium blanket that can be used to breed plutonium surrounding the core. This article discusses the potential application of antineutrino monitoring to the verification of the presence of a breeding blanket. It is found that a 36 kg antineutrino detector, exploiting coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and made of silicon could determine the presence of a breeding blanket at a liquid sodium cooled fast reactor at the 95 percent confidence level within 90 days.","PeriodicalId":55952,"journal":{"name":"Science & Global Security","volume":"70 4 1","pages":"114 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2016-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87705106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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