Passive Nondestructive Assay Of Nuclear Materials

This open access book describes the nondestructive assay techniques that are used for the measurement of nuclear material (primarily uranium and plutonium) for nuclear material accountancy purposes. It is a substantial revision to the so-called PANDA manual that has been a standard reference since its publication in 1991. The book covers the origin and interactions of gamma rays and neutrons as they affect nuclear measurements and also describes the theory and practice of calorimetry. The book gives a description of many instruments based on these techniques that are applied in the field. Although the basic physics has not changed since PANDA was first published, the last thirty years have seen many advances in analysis methods, instrumentation, and applications. The basic descriptions of the origin and interactions of radiation have been updated and include newer references. There have been extensive revisions of the description of gamma detection methods, attenuation correction procedures, and analysis methods, including for the measurement of uranium enrichment and the determination of plutonium isotopic composition. Extensive revisions and additions have also been made to the description of neutron detectors and to the explanation of neutron coincidence techniques. The chapter on neutron multiplicity techniques is a new addition to this edition. The applications of gamma and neutron techniques have been completely overhauled to remove obsolete systems and to include many current applications. The values of, and references to, nuclear data have been updated. This updated edition is an essential reference for academic researchers and practitioners in the field. This is an open access book.

The U.S. government has made safeguarding of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium an international policy priority, and convened The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., on April 12 and 13, 2010. Forty six governments sent delegations to the summit and twenty nine of them made national commitments to support nuclear security. During the Summit, India announced its commitment to establish a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership. The Centre is to be open to international participation through academic0 exchanges, training, and research and development efforts. India-United States Cooperation on Global Security is the summary of a workshop held by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) together with its partner of more than 15 years, the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore, India. The workshop identified and examined potential areas for substantive scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries on issues related to nuclear material security. Technical experts from India and the United States focused on topics of nuclear material security and promising opportunities for India and the United States to learn from each other and cooperate. This report discusses nuclear materials management issues such as nuclear materials accounting, cyber security, physical security, and nuclear forensics.