International Workshop on Gamma Spectrometry Analysis Codes for U and Pu Isotopics
| November 3 - 7, 2008 Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA |
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Workshop Summary: On November 3-7, 2008, the Central Region Chapter of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM-CRC) and the European Safeguards Research and Development Association (ESARDA) co-hosted the International Workshop on Gamma Spectrometry Analysis Codes for U and Pu Isotopics at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The workshop was attended by more than 100 participants, 30 percent of whom represented foreign countries. The participants included code developers, code suppliers, safeguards specialists, domestic and international inspectors, process operators, regulators, equipment developers, material control and accounting personnel, and program sponsors from various government agencies. |
The objective of the workshop was to provide an international forum for code developers, commercial distributors and end users to interface and develop solutions to many of the programmatic and technical issues associated with each of the codes capabilities, limitations, applicability, sustainability, and version control. The workshop also provided an international forum for discussing development of an internationally accepted standard test method for such codes.
The workshop provided end users with an opportunity to interact with many of the original code developers and current commercial distributors in a hands-on, laboratory environment to better understand the application and limitations of the various codes. It also provided a unique opportunity for code developers and commercial distributors to interact with the user community to better understand the challenges that the user community faces when utilizing the codes in a laboratory or field environment. The workshop included lectures from each of the various code developers and presentations from many end users. All workshop participants actively participated in gamma spectroscopy system operation, data collection, data evaluation and error propagation.
Featured codes included FRAM, MGA, MGAU, NaIGEM, MGA++, WinU235, WinUF6, U235HI, and IGA.
Overview
In November 2005 an International Workshop on "Gamma Evaluation Codes for Plutonium and Uranium Isotope Abundance Measurements by High-Resolution Gamma Spectrometry: Current Status and Future Challenges" was held in Karlsruhe, Germany. This workshop was attended by many of the primary experts in gamma spectrometry techniques including many of the initial code developers.
In parallel, a separate initiative was conducted under the framework of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and Brazilian Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) bilateral safeguards cooperation agreement.
This initiative, referred to as Action Sheet 14 (AS 14), established a regional Isotopic Measurements Working Group that focused on evaluating gamma evaluation codes used for determining the 235U enrichment of uranium in various forms.
Therefore it is considered by those involved in the development, control and use of these gamma evaluation codes that we should endeavor to continue the positive experience of AS14, enlarging the participation to the international community, broadening the scope in order to include plutonium isotopic measurements in order to establish a working group (WG) that would respond to the needs expressed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, EURATOM, ABACC and other domestic nuclear material safeguards programs.
Since AS14 already includes many of the American subject matter experts, it was quite straightforward to look at ESARDA, and in particular to the NDA working group as the catalyst for the institution of this dedicated WG. The proposal to launch the institution of an international Working Group on Gamma Spectrometry Techniques for U/Pu Isotopics was decided in a meeting organized in Aix-en-Provence on the 21st of May 2007.
Scope of the International Working Group
The scope of the international WG is to provide a forum for exchange of information, technical developments, validation and testing of gamma spectroscopy techniques used to determine the isotopic composition of uranium and plutonium samples in nuclear safeguards applications. Specifically, but not exclusively, it will address issues related to gamma evaluation codes, such as their applicability, capability and limitations, standardization, sustainability and version control.
For more information contact:
Alena Zhernosek
+-1-865-241-2552
zhernosekav@ornl.gov
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