2022/10/20 by L. Kneale, S.T. Wilson, Kneale, Liz +9 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Radioactive contamination and transfer
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2210.11224
openalex publication_date 2022/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Antineutrinos from a nuclear reactor comprise an unshieldable signal which carries information about the core. A gadolinium-doped, water-based Cherenkov detector could detect reactor antineutrinos for mid- to far-field remote reactor monitoring for non-proliferation applications. Two novel and independent reconstruction and analysis pathways have been developed and applied to a number of representative reactor signals to evaluate the sensitivity of a kiloton-scale, gadolinium-doped Cherenkov detector as a remote monitor. The sensitivity of four detector configurations to nine reactor signal combinations was evaluated for a detector situated in Boulby Mine, close to the Boulby Underground Laboratory in the UK. It was found that a 22~m detector with a gadolinium-doped, water-based liquid scintillator fill is sensitive to a \rm ∼ 3~GWth reactor at a standoff of \rm ∼150~km within two years in the current reactor landscape. A larger detector would be required to achieve a more timely detection or to monitor smaller or more distant reactors.