Monitoring the thermal power of nuclear reactors with a prototype cubic meter antineutrino detector

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate how quickly and how precisely a reactor’s operational status and thermal power can be monitored over hour to month time scales, using the antineutrino rate as measured by a cubic meter scale detector. Our results are obtained from a detector we have deployed and operated at 25m standoff from a reactor core. This prototype can detect a prompt reactor shutdown within 5h and monitor relative thermal power to within 7days. Monitoring of short-term power changes in this way may be useful in the context of International Atomic Energy Agency’s reactor safeguards regime or other cooperative monitoring regimes.