Nuclear Safeguards and Fuel Characterization
The research in nuclear safeguards is motivated by societal needs on the international and national arena, where the overall objective aims to deter from and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons through misuse of civilian nuclear facilities and materials.
Photo: Elisabeth Koblet, SKB
The International Atomic Energy Agency is responsible for the implementation of nuclear safeguards on an international level. In Sweden, we also abide by regulations by Euratom and the Swedish regulator SSM. The research is conducted through interacting with stakeholders representing three these organizations, as well as the Swedish nuclear industry, Swedish universities, European research centers, American national laboratories and research organizations like the European Safeguards Research and Development Association (ESARDA).
Mainly we develop methodologies and techniques that can be used to verify nuclear material in the civilian nuclear fuel cycle, which includes civilian nuclear facilities, materials and technologies. The research requires information about nuclear materials such as irradiated nuclear fuels. Depending on the properties of the nuclear material, the radiation emitted by the object is affected and hence also the detection of such radiation for nuclear safeguards applications.
We are involved in a wide range of projects and applications involving the existing nuclear fuel cycle and power plants, as well as future nuclear energy systems covering both small modular reactors and Generation IV nuclear energy systems. Ongoing research projects can be thematically divided into the following areas:
Verification of spent or irradiated nuclear fuel
This research aims to study different measurement techniques and instruments that can be used by nuclear inspectors in connection to the verification of spent nuclear fuel in for instance nuclear power plants or storage facilities for such fuel. The research includes specific instruments such as the Digital Cherenkov Vieweing Devide (DCVD), SFAT instruments, FORK-detectors, and prototype Differential Die-Away (DDA) och Differential Die-Away Self-Interrogation (DDSI) instruments, but also improvements of the measurement methodology and analysis techniques. Also research related to verification before encapsulations and final storage is included here. It includes fuel characterisation, and challenges associated with the choice of measurement techniques, methods and instruments relevant in this context.
Nuclear safeguards for future nuclear energy systems
Within this area we are involved in three large projects. One is the national collaboration project ANItA, focusing on the deployment of light-water cooled small modular reactors in Sweden. In this project, we lead a work package on the development of methodologies and techniques for the verification of nuclear material in such reactors and energy systems. The research is planned to cover both analysis on a system level as well as detailed simulations and analyses of the nuclear fuel and its properties.
The figure shows existing nuclear facilities in Sweden and transport of nuclear fuel. It is not clear where new reactor systems could be deployed.
In the MÅSTE/ENFORCER project, we will instead focus on Generation IV nuclear energy systems, and do fuel characterization as well as nuclear safeguards and physical protection research for lead-cooled systems.
In a third project denoted “3S”, we are conducting research on nuclear safety, security and safeguards for marine applications.
Development of analysis methodologies
In this area we are investigating more effective and efficient analysis methodologies in connection to nuclear material verification. We have during several years researched the use and development of machine learning methods for classification and regression purposes, where the idea is to better use data collected in connection to fuel measurements. The underlying idea is to rely on the use of automated algorithms to find patterns and structures in the data that can be exploited to support safeguards verification and evaluations.
A heat map showing correlations between fuel parameters and input parameters of a machine learning algorithm.
Contact
- Group leader
- Sophie Grape