Interim report on the performance test results for the Advanced Verification for Inventory sample System (AVIS)

Nagatani, Taketeru ; Nakajima, Shinji; Asano, Takashi ; Kawasue, Akane*; Iso, Shoko*; Kumakura, Shinichi*; Watanabe, Takehito*; Marlow, J.*; Martyn, S.*; Menlove, H.*; Carlos, R.*

The AVIS (Advanced Verification for Inventory sample System), which was designed by LANL in partnership with Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC), is a nondestructive assay (NDA) system to measure the plutonium mass for plutonium uranium mixed oxide (MOX) powder and pellet for large scale MOX fuel fabrication plant (J-MOX). The AVIS is intended to meet a performance specification of a total measurement uncertainty of less than 0.5% in the neutron (Pu effective) measurement. It is intended that the AVIS measurement will be substituted for a fraction of the DA samples to reduce the number of DA from J-MOX. Therefore, the AVIS has a crucial role to attain effective safeguards for J-MOX. JAEA, which has experience/knowledge to develop the NDA system and plutonium handling field, was entrusted with performance testing for the AVIS from NMCC. JAEA has conducted performance testing on the AVIS using standard radiation source (neutron and ). As the results of test, it was confirmed that the AVIS has the designed performance. As a next step, JAEA will conduct the AVIS test using MOX materials in order to evaluate the relevant measurement accuracy. This paper reports the performance test results and future MOX test plans of the AVIS.