2022/10/17 by O. A. Akindele, A. Bernstein, Akindele, O. A. +11
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Neutrino Physics Research #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Radioactive contamination and transfer
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2210.09391
openalex publication_date 2022/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
To date, antineutrino experiments built for the purpose of demonstrating a nonproliferation capability have typically employed organic scintillators, were situated as close to the core as possible -typically a few meters to tens of meters distant and have not exceeded a few tons in size. One problem with this approach is that proximity to the reactor core require accommodation by the host facility. Water Cherenkov detectors located offsite, at distances of a few kilometers or greater, may facilitate non-intrusive monitoring and verification of reactor activities over a large area. As the standoff distance increases, the detector target mass must scale accordingly. This article quantifies the degree to which a kiloton-scale gadolinium-doped water-Cherenkov detector can exclude the existence of undeclared reactors within a specified distance, and remotely detect the presence of a hidden reactor in the presence of declared reactors, by verifying the operational power and standoff distance using a Feldman-Cousins based likelihood analysis. A 1-kton scale (fiducial) water Cherenkov detector can exclude gigawatt-scale nuclear reactors up to tens of kilometers within a year. When attempting to identify the specific range and power of a reactor, the detector energy resolution was not sufficient to delineate between the two.