Speaker
Description
Reactor anti-neutrinos after being discovered for the first time by Reines and Cowan, have been observed and studied by various neutrino physics experiments for different purposes. Electron anti-neutrinos are elementary particles that are inextricably associated with nuclear fission and are produced in a nuclear reactor as a result of beta decay of fissioning isotopes. Since the amount of neutrinos produced is proportional to the reactor operation power and the per-unit operation power depends on the fuel components, the reactor anti-neutrinos can, in principle, be used as an independent and real-time monitor of the reactor operation and its fuel components, utilizing it for nuclear proliferation. The large flux of antineutrinos that leaves a reactor, carries information about two quantities of interest for safeguards: the reactor power and fissile inventory. This automatic and non-intrusive means provides an alternative for reactor monitoring as a part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other safeguards regimes. We put forward a survey of the detection of reactor anti-neutrinos with regards to near-field, mid-field, and far-field monitoring and efforts that are underway across the globe, with a strong emphasis on the Gadolinium(Gd) loaded Water Cherenkov and Scintillator based experiments.
