• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2704-2710
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• 2024

Nuclear archaeology research provides scientific methods to reconstruct the operating histories of fissile material production facilities to account for past fissile material production. While it has typically focused on analyzing material in permanent reactor structures, spent fuel or high-level waste also hold information about the reactor operation. In this computational study, we explore a Bayesian inference framework for reconstructing the operational history from measurements of isotope ratios from a sample of nuclear waste. We investigate two different inference models. The first model discriminates between three potential reactors of origin (Magnox, PWR, and PHWR) while simultaneously reconstructing the fuel burnup, time since irradiation, initial enrichment, and average power density. The second model reconstructs the fuel burnup and time since irradiation of two batches of waste in a mixed sample. Each of the models is applied to a set of simulated test data, and the performance is evaluated by comparing the highest posterior density regions to the corresponding parameter values of the test dataset. Both models perform well on the simulated test cases, which highlights the potential of the Bayesian inference framework and opens up avenues for further investigation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1330-1338
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• 2024

Information on isotopic composition and geometric structure is necessary for identifying a true warhead. Nevertheless, such classified information should be protected physically or electronically. With a novel Hash encryption algorithm, this paper presents a Monte Carlo-based design of a neutron activation analysis verification module. The verification module employs a thermal neutron source, a non-uniform mask (physically encrypting information about isotopic composition and geometric structure), a gamma detector array, and a Hash encryption algorithm (for electronic encryption). In the physical field, a non-uniform mask is designed to distort the characteristic gamma rays emitted by the inspected item. Furthermore, as part of the Hash algorithm, a key is introduced to encrypt the data and improve the system resolution through electronic design. In order to quantify the difference between items, Hamming distance is used, which allows data encryption and analysis simultaneously. Simulated inspections of simple objects are used to quantify system performance. It is demonstrated that the method retains superior resolution even with 1% noise level. And the performances of anti-statistical attack and anti-brute force cracking are evaluated and found to be very excellent. The verification method lays a solid foundation for nuclear disarmament verification in the upcoming era.