Neutrinos as a New Tool for Nuclear Safeguards

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Researchers from the Double Chooz Collaboration in France have made a major discovery. They recorded the first highly precise energy signature of antineutrinos from spent nuclear fuel.
This new discovery could help scientists monitor nuclear facilities from a safe distance.

Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles with no electrical charge and almost zero mass. They interact very weakly with matter. This allows billions of them to pass through our bodies and solid objects without any trace.
Nuclear fission reactions create huge amounts of antineutrinos. Even when a reactor shuts down, radioactive isotopes like praseodymium-144 and rhodium-106 keep decaying. This decay continues to release a weak flow of antineutrinos from spent fuel.

Scientists measured the leftover antineutrino signals from spent fuel. They found that about 56% of the signal comes from fuel inside reactor cores, while 44% comes from spent fuel in nearby cooling pools.
Inspectors can use this leftover neutrino signal to check spent-fuel stores remotely. If someone secretly removes fuel assemblies to make weapons, the neutrino signal will drop.

These detectors can estimate the amount of plutonium inside reactor cores in real time.
They can also alert inspectors if someone removes fuel early to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Current neutrino detectors are extremely large and cannot be moved easily.
These systems need massive shielding to block out interference from cosmic rays. For example, one Double Chooz detector weighed more than 500 tonnes, which included 300 tonnes of shielding.