Technology to measure the flow of subatomic particles known as antineutrinos from nuclear reactors could allow continuous remote monitoring designed to detect fueling changes that might indicate the diversion of nuclear materials. The monitoring could be done from outside the reactor vessel, and the technology may be sensitive enough to detect substitution of a single fuel assembly.
The technique, which could be used with existing pressurized water reactors as well as future designs expected to require less frequent refueling, could supplement other monitoring techniques, including the presence of human inspectors. The potential utility of the above-ground antineutrino monitoring technique for current and future reactors was confirmed through extensive simulations done by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"Antineutrino detectors offer a solution for continuous, real-time verification of what is going on within a nuclear reactor without actually having to be in the reactor core," said Anna Erickson, associate professor in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. "You cannot shield antineutrinos, so if the state running a reactor decides to use it for nefarious purposes, they can't prevent us from seeing that there was a change in reactor operations."
Employing antineutrino detectors to safeguard future nuclear reactors from diversions (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11434-z) (DX)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by pipedwho on Thursday August 08 2019, @02:25AM (1 child)
This technique has been (is being) used to monitor the Fukushima reactors. The KamLand detector [wikipedia.org] is located at a 180km mean distance from the reactors. So this technique does not require the detector be positioned right outside the reactor building. It also requires a relatively long time to integrate the detection events on the order or weeks/months, so not something you can stick on a plane and fly over the area.
Also of note, is that this technique was used to show the existence of antineutrino byproducts of nuclear reactions in an experiment back in 1956.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday August 08 2019, @09:06AM
> so not something you can stick on a plane and fly over the area
The number of events is proportional to both the exposure time and the detector mass (and inversely proportional to the square of the distance). Kamland is a kilotonne!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 08 2019, @04:38PM
could just be that causality is broken with radioactivity and that's what's making them "neutrino (anti or not) detectors" chirp.
obviously for causality to work there's got to be matter in the universe.
my thinking is that "causality" as we know it was studied and philosophized mostly during a time where matter was considered "indestructible" and "unchanging".
philosophy was in decline even before radioactivity was discovered and hasn't faired well since. however the facination with "transmutation" has continued unabated since the alchemists proposed it some centuries before ...
in any case, they should just shield the "in dispute particle" with whatever can detect/interact-with them ...