An antineutrino detector for monitoring a CANDU(TM) reactor

Neutrinos are elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions or radioactive decay, and interact with matter only via the weak interaction. The most prevalent sources of manmade neutrinos are nuclear reactors: electron antineutrinos (one form of neutrino) are copiously produced by nuclear reactors from the beta-decay of fission products at a rate of about 6 antineutrinos per fission. There are several ongoing efforts to exploit the characteristics of antineutrinos for the safeguards-related surveillance of the operation of civilian nuclear power reactors, including production of plutonium. Because of both their unique ability to penetrate matter and their abundant production in reactors, neutrinos offer an unprecedented opportunity to non-invasively and independently monitor the reactor core in near real time. At reactors that undergo on-load refuelling (OLR), fuel bundles are continuously removed from and inserted into the core during normal reactor operation. To directly demonstrate the utility of antineutrino detection for OLR power reactors, an antineutrino detector will be deployed at the Point Lepreau Generating Station (PLGS) CANDU 6 reactor in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. This paper describes the detector currently under construction and comments on the ability of the detector to follow startup operation and evolving burnup under fresh-core conditions, as well as equilibrium operations. (author)