Discerning whether a nuclear reactor is also being employed for the production of nuclear weapon materials is a challenging task. However, capturing and analyzing antimatter particles has shown significant potential in monitoring the specific operations of nuclear reactors, even from several hundred miles away. A team of researchers has created a detector that uses Cherenkov radiation to detect antineutrinos and determine their energy profiles from great distances as a means to oversee the activities at nuclear reactors. They have suggested setting up their device in northeast England to monitor antineutrinos emitted by reactors across the U.K. and northern France.
Nuclear fission reactors serve as an essential power source in many regions globally, with an anticipated increase in worldwide power capacity expected to approach double by the year 2050. A significant concern is the challenge of identifying whether a nuclear reactor is being utilized to produce materials for nuclear weapons. The capture and analysis of antimatter particles have shown promise in tracking which reactor operations are happening, even from great distances.
In AIP Advances, published by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University of Hawaii have developed a detector that identifies and examines antineutrinos produced by nuclear reactors. The device engineered by Wilson and his team detects antineutrinos and characterizes their energy profiles from miles away, which serves as a method of overseeing nuclear reactor activities.
“In this paper, we evaluate a detector design that could measure the energy emitted from particles in nuclear fission reactors over long distances,” stated author Stephen Wilson. “The insights gained could reveal not just whether a reactor is present and detail its operational cycle, but also its distance from our monitoring location.”
Neutrinos are elementary particles that carry no charge and have an almost negligible mass, while antineutrinos are their antimatter counterparts, typically generated during nuclear reactions. By capturing these antiparticles and analyzing their energy outputs, researchers can gain information ranging from the operational cycles to the specific isotopes found in used fuel.
The design developed by the team capitalizes on Cherenkov radiation, a phenomenon where radiation is emitted when charged particles travel faster than the speed of light in a particular medium, similar to the sonic booms heard when breaking the sound barrier. This effect is responsible for the distinctive blue glow of nuclear reactors and has been utilized for neutrino detection in astrophysics settings.
The researchers plan to construct their device in northeast England, aiming to detect antineutrinos from nuclear reactors across the U.K. and parts of northern France.
However, a significant concern is that antineutrinos generated from the upper atmosphere and space can interfere with the signals received, especially from distant reactors, which emit very faint signals—sometimes as infrequent as one antineutrino per day.
To mitigate this issue, the team has proposed situating their detector in a mine located over 1 kilometer underground.
“Differentiating between these particles poses a considerable challenge in analysis, and measuring an energy spectrum can take an impractically long duration,” Wilson remarked. “What surprised me the most is that this endeavor is not entirely out of reach.”
Wilson anticipates that this detector will encourage further exploration into using antineutrinos for monitoring nuclear reactors, which may include measuring the antineutrino spectrum of spent nuclear fuel and developing smaller detectors that can operate closer to reactor sites.
