The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Proliferation Detection’s (PD) mission is to advance U.S. capabilities for detection of nuclear weapons development activities, including material production and movement. Nuclear Safeguards resides in PD’s Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D;). DNN R&D; Safeguards focuses on the basic research needed for...
The isotopic analysis of single U-rich particles that are collected during IAEA inspections by means of cotton swipes is an important tool in nuclear safeguards to help verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities. Two methods that are routinely used within the IAEA Network of Analytical Laboratories to determine particles’ U and/or Pu isotopic compositions are fission...
This talk describes two change-detection examples that arise in Safeguards data evaluation. Example one arises in IAEA verifications, where short-term systematic errors can change over time in operator and/or inspector data. Typically, it is assumed that the short-term systematic errors change from inspection period to inspection period. In some data sets, it appears that the short-term errors...
Following the expression of a need for an Americium standard and particularly for one with a certified 243Am content in 2009 and thereafter by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives/ Direction de l’Energie Nucléaire (CEA/DEN) of Marcoule and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (EC-JRC)in Geel carried...
One important dimension of safeguards innovation is leveraging emerging technologies in other domains and bringing them to bear on safeguards problems. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible for verifying the mass of elemental uranium in various forms (powders, pellets, scrap) as part of inspections in different facilities. Current methods require in-field dissolution...
One of the mission of the Analysis Method Establishment Commission (CETAMA) is to supervise the organization of Inter-Laboratories Comparison (ILC) for the nuclear industry and for environmental or safeguards public organizations. Those programs, called “EQRAIN” (French acronym for Quality Assessment of Analytical Results in the Nuclear Industry) are organized every year or every two years on...
In line with the strategic plan of the Department of Safeguards, the Office of Safeguards Analytical Services (SGAS) was given the task to prepare for new verification challenges by expanding its contribution to the Environmental Sampling Programme in the area of particle analysis. Since 2010, the LG-SIMS technique has been implemented by SGAS to perform particle isotopic measurements that...
ITV is now widely implemented for safeguards purposes not only for the verification view but also for the facility quality control. Japan has participated in the discussions since the first version (ITV1993) through that of the 2010. With various kinds of nuclear facilities (enrichment, fabrication, reactor, reprocessing, MOX fuel fabrication, etc.) and with the condition of being subject to...
Micro-analysis of particles and swipes, as safeguards tool is routinely used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear activities in states subject to comprehensive safeguards. This can be achieved by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) combined with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). Uranyl nitrate hexahydrate sample from safeguards destructive...
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are organizing a workshop on the Hybrid K-Edge/K-XRF (HKED) technique in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 23 - 25 April 2018. The HKED technique is a key method for safeguards nuclear material accountancy at bulk-handling facilities. It allows one to measure uranium and plutonium concentration in liquid samples with...
The Age of uranium materials (time after the last purification) is one of characteristics, which may be determined for Safeguards goals [1]. Reliable techniques are developed now for determination of the age of these materials by using ICP-MS [2]. But the results of bulk method, are correct only if the microparticles of one uranium material are present in analyzed sample and consequently in...
A key topic in international Safeguards is the work in preventing further spread of nuclear weapon technology and nuclear materials. High performance analyses are necessary in order to detect undeclared nuclear activities and require comparability between different producers of analytical results. Within the European Commission Support programme, the JRC Karlsruhe has been demonstrating that...
The Plutonium Fuel Development Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA-PFDC) received Japan’s first plutonium in 1966 and commenced research to develop plutonium fuel as a key objective of the Japanese nuclear fuel cycle. Since then fundamental research with plutonium-bearing materials, and the development and fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuels, has been carried out.
When...
Laboratories and industrial are often confronted with problems of detection of very low concentrations or activities, when looking for traces that are sometimes at the limit of the performances of equipment and available methods of analysis. It is notably true when looking for pollutants and micropollutants in the environment, whether it is chemical, biological, radiochemical analyses or...
