The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NA-24) develops technologies to aid in implementing international nuclear safeguards. The Isotope Ratio Method (IRM) was successfully developed in 2005 – 2007 by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Republic of Georgia’s Andronikashvili Institute of Physics as a generic technology to verify the declared operation of water-moderated research reactors, independent of spent fuel inventory. IRM estimates the energy produced over the operating lifetime of a fission reactor by measuring the ratios of the isotopes of trace impurity elements in non-fuel reactor components.The Isotope Ratio Method is a technique for estimating the energy produced over the operating lifetime of a fission reactor by measuring the ratios of the isotopes of impurity elements in non-fuel reactor components.
Revised: January 26, 2011 |
Published: August 11, 2010
Citation
Cliff J.B., D.P. Frank, D.C. Gerlach, C.J. Gesh, W.W. Little, B.D. Reid, and G.V. Tsiklauri, et al. 2010."Independent Verification of Research Reactor Operation (Analysis of the Georgian IRT-M Reactor by the Isotope Ratio Method)." In Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, July 11-15, 2010, Baltimore, Maryland. Deerfield, Illinois:INMM.PNNL-SA-70908.