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AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTS FOR MANAGED-ACCESS INSPECTIONSAlex Glaser

Monitoring, Technology, Verification (MTV) Workshop Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 2020

Princeton University

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THE MTV TEAM @ PRINCETON

Soha Aslam MTV Fellow

Rob Goldston PPPL POC

Eric Lepowsky MTV Fellow

Jihye Jeon MTV Associate

Alex Glaser MTV Faculty

Moritz Kütt (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, Hamburg) Harry Fetsch (PPPL Science Undergraduate Laboratory Intern)

Preventing nuclear weapons proliferation and reducing the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism around the world are key U.S national security strategic objectives. The goal for this consortium is to support R&D that improves the “ability to effectively monitor (detect and verify) global fuel cycle activity in any type of environment”

NNSA/DNN & MTV

MISSION RELEVANCE

Source: W. Keith Luse, CISAC (top) and IAEA (bottom)

The main objective of this project is to identify new technologies and approaches to monitor ongoing fuel-cycle activities (in particular, at gas centrifuge enrichment plants) and to develop a framework for reconstructing the history of fissile-material production programs (including a tool to evaluate the completeness of baseline declarations and to understand inherent uncertainties)

THE NEED FOR IMPROVED MONITORING TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES

TECHNICAL APPROACH

1. REAL-TIME MONITORING

Our research will support the development a non-invasive UF6 thermal mass flow monitor, which could play an important role for advanced safeguards in centrifuge enrichment plants; builds on active collaboration with LANL

Source: Urenco

2. AUTONOMOUS INSPECTION SYSTEMS 3. RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST

We will examine the potential role of mobile, directionally and spectrally sensitive neutron detectors (“inspector bots”) for safeguards and other monitoring applications; builds on active collaboration with PPPL

We will develop a framework for reconstructing fissile-material production histories that complements nuclear archaeology techniques by examining the role of operating records and simulation tools (including Cyclus)

Source: Peter Landgren (Princeton) Source: Rio Tinto

Autonomous Mobile Inspection Systems

“ROBOT INSPECTORS”FOR NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS AND MONITORING APPLICATIONS

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SAND82-1588C

The ROBIN is particularly useful in facilities where security [and] national sovereignty … require access restrictions.The ROBIN provides a potential tool that … allows the inspector to collect data inside a facility without actually entering that facility … [and] limits the potential disclosure of sensitive technology.

Frank F. Dean, ROBIN: A Way to Collect In-plant Safeguards Data With Minimal Inspector Access Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, November 1982

IAEA ROBOTICS CHALLENGE

www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/robotics-challenge-winning-design-helps-speed-up-spent-fuel-verification www.iaea.org/topics/safeguards-in-practice/robotics-challenge-2017

Some of the most common tasks undertaken by IAEA nuclear safeguards inspectors involve making repetitive measurements in locations that can be difficult to access and/or have elevated radiation levels. This is an area where robotics has the potential to play a useful role.

BORON-COATED STRAW (BCS) DETECTORSBCS detectors contain 37 star-shaped copper straws coated with a one micrometer thick 10B enriched boron carbide layer

Source: proportionaltech.myshopify.com

Thermal neutrons captured in 10B are converted into secondary particles through the 10B(n,α) reaction

INSPECTOR BOT DETECTOR GEOMETRY

21.4 cm 2.54 cm

(MCNP MODEL)

Results from a First Measurement Campaign(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, September 2019)

Californium-252 Source

QR-Code “track”

INSPECTOR BOT COUNT RATESBARE CALIFORNIUM-252 SOURCE, PPPL, SEPTEMBER 2019

Experimental data for bare Cf-252 source 500 cm away from inspector bot

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1 Source direction

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INSPECTOR BOT COUNT RATESMODERATED CALIFORNIUM-252 SOURCE, PPPL, SEPTEMBER 2019

Experimental data for moderated Cf-252 source 500 cm away from inspector bot

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1 Source direction

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2 3

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ESTIMATING AVERAGE NEUTRON ENERGYFROM THE FRONT-TO-BACK DETECTOR COUNT RATIOS

Source direction

MCNP calculations for a monoenergetic neutron source located 500 cm away from the inspector bot

F

B B

Measured value for bare source (~ 2.5)

ESTIMATING AVERAGE NEUTRON ENERGYFROM THE FRONT-TO-BACK DETECTOR COUNT RATIOS

Source direction

MCNP calculations for a monoenergetic neutron source located 500 cm away from the inspector bot

INSPECTOR BOT COUNT RATESIN A COMPLEX, CLUTTERED ENVIRONMENT

Experimental data for bare Cf-252 source; inspector bot located between neutron source and nearby massive concrete wall

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2 3True direction of source

Inspector bot’s current best estimate of

direction to source

True direction

Inspector bot’s current best guess

EXPECTED IMPACT

SUPPORTING NEXT-GENERATION SAFEGUARDS SUPPORTING NON-INTRUSIVE VERIFICATION APPROACHES

Source: IAEA Source: Peter Landgren

Directionally sensitive neutron (mobile) detectors can provide optimized detection and accounting

of undeclared and declared masses of UF6

through (α,n) reactions

Confirming the absence of undeclared treaty accountable items (neutron sources) in sensitive military facilities

Confirming that the neutron field in a storage facility has not changed since the last inspection

Collaborations with research groups at Princeton working on robotics and algorithm development

Possible use in cascade areas and in feed and withdrawal areas of gas centrifuge enrichment plants

Source: Elle Starkman/PPPL