Development of plutonium reference material; 10+ years of JAEA-DOE cooperation

Mason, P.*; Sumi, Mika; Kageyama, Tomio ; Suzuki, Toru ; Holland, M. K.*; Cordaro, J.*

In the early 2000's it had become clear that Japanese fuel cycle facilities would require plutonium RMs needed to perform a large number of accountancy measurements beyond the capacity of the producers. Additionally, the increasing difficulty in producing plutonium CRMs would further limit the amount of imported plutonium RMs available for safeguards. In order to help address the issue, in 2003 the US DOE's NNSA and JAEA began a cooperation to develop Japanese capabilities for plutonium RM production. Under this auspices, the DOE's NBL and JAEA's PFDC began efforts to establish plutonium RM production capability. In 2013 the DOE's SRNL established a similar cooperative agreement with JAEA's TRP to develop and maintain expertise in plutonium coulometry. This paper will discuss the development and status of these efforts and others.