Los Alamos National Laboratory's Scientific and Technical Contributions to the Development of NDA Technologies under the United States Support Program

摘要

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and engineers have been engaged in the United States Support Program activities since its inception. This article describes LANL's scientific and technical contributions to the development of innovative nondestructive assay (NDA) measurement techniques, tools, and instrumentation used by the International Atomic Energy Agency and provided through the USSP. The techniques include passive and active neutron measurements to verify the mass of plutonium and uranium, as well as gamma measurements for uranium enrichment and plutonium isotopic determination. Other technical contributions include the design of general purpose and specialized detectors and data acquisition instrumentation, as well as acquisition and review software. An additional very important aspect is the development of unattended systems for bulk material handling plants that have saved large amounts of inspection resources during their deployment. Examples of NDA techniques and instrumentation are reviewed for their physics and engineering aspects, as applied to past and current safeguards needs, including those in reprocessing plants, fuel fabrication plants and enrichment plants. Advanced scientific and technical approaches to future safeguards and nonproliferation, challenges are also described. The discussion is intertwined with a history of NDA development, marking the 50th anniversary since the establishment of the first comprehensive international nuclear safeguards program at Los Alamos.