Using Neutrinos to Monitor Nuclear Reactors: the Angra Neutrino Experiment, Simulation and Detector Status

Abstract

We present the status of the Angra Neutrino Experiment, aimed at developing an antineutrino detector for monitoring nuclear reactor activity. The detector comprises a 1.42 m3 Gadolinium-Water Cerenkov target, surrounded by 50 cm of water shielding, placed inside a commercial container about 30 m from the reactor core, at the Angra II nuclear power plant, Brazil. The 4 GW thermal power of the Angra II reactor will provide a few thousand antineutrino interactions per day. The main challenge of the experiment is to overcome the very high cosmic ray induced background at sea level. The present text describes the construction status and simulations results.