Abstract
The National Nuclear Security Administration is developing methods for nonproliferation assessments to support the development and implementation of U.S. nonproliferation policy. This paper summarizes the key results of that effort. Proliferation resistance is the degree of difficulty that a nuclear material, facility, process, or activity poses to the acquisition of one or more nuclear weapons. A top-level measure of proliferation resistance for a fuel cycle system is developed here from a hierarchy of metrics. At the lowest level, intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to proliferation are defined. These barriers are recommended as a means to characterize the proliferation characteristics of a fuel cycle. Because of the complexity of nonproliferation assessments, the problem is decomposed into: metrics to be computed, barriers to proliferation, and a finite set of threats. The spectrum of potential threats of nuclear proliferation is complex and ranges from small terrorist cells to industrialized countries with advanced nuclear fuel cycles.
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References
Guidelines for the Performance of Nonproliferation Assessments, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PNNL-14294, U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, May 2003.
NERAC, TOPS Task Force. Annex: Attributes of proliferation resistance for civilian nuclear power systems. USDOE, October 2000. Available at: http: //www. nuclear.gov/nerac/FinalTOPSRptA nnex.pdf
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For example, see Peterson PF, Roglans J, Bari RA. Assessment methodology development for proliferation resistance and physical protection of Generation IV systems. Proceedings of ANS International Conference — Global 2003, New Orleans, LA, November 13-18, 2003
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag London
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Bari, R., Roglans, J., Denning, R., Mladineo, S. (2004). Assessing the Proliferation Resistance of Innovative Nuclear Fuel Cycles. In: Spitzer, C., Schmocker, U., Dang, V.N. (eds) Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-410-4_141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-410-4_141
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-1057-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-410-4
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