The detection of reactor antineutrinos for reactor core monitoring: an overview

The field of applied neutrino physics has shown new developments in the last decade. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has expressed its interest in the potentialities of antineutrino detection as a new tool for reactor monitoring and has created a dedicated ad-hoc Working Group in late 2010 to follow the associated Research and Development. Several research projects are on-going over the world either to build antineutrino detectors dedicated to reactor monitoring, either to search for and develop innovative detection techniques, or to simulate and study the characteristics of the antineutrino emission of actual and innovative nuclear reactor designs. The European Safeguards Research and Development Association, ESARDA, has created in late 2010 a group devoted to Novel Approaches and Novel Technologies (NA/NT) allowing to create contacts between the research community and agencies. The ESARDA NA/NT working group has decided one year ago to create a sub-WG dedicated to the detection of antineutrinos. At this 35th ESARDA meeting, we propose to give an overview of the most recent progresses made in the field of antineutrino detection for reactor monitoring, including the actual possibilities and limitations of their detection and the status of various developments towards compact antineutrino detectors for reactor monitoring considered in perspective of the antineutrino emission from various reactor designs. We will then present the objectives of the ESARDA sub-WG devoted to the antineutrino probe.