Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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AGA: Arbeitsgruppe Physik und Abrüstung
AGA 7: An Overview of Physics and Disarmament Research in Germany – Social Event & Poster Session
AGA 7.5: Poster
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 17:30–18:30, KH 00.016
nuSENTRY: Safeguards monitoring of future compact reactors using antineutrino detectors — •Yan-Jie Schnellbach, Sarah Friedrich, Robin Mentel, and Adhitya Sekhar — Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Current developments in the nuclear industry foresee a growth in the number of nuclear power plants, especially driven by a new class of reactor types with < 300 MWe power, called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). The planned decentral deployment of SMRs, combined with technically more integrated and compact designs, present new challenges for safeguards. Antineutrino detectors offer a potential new way of monitoring the fissile material in SMRs. Active reactors produce an unique neutrino fingerprint based on the fissioning isotopes and reactor power. Unlike other radiation, neutrino emissions penetrate any shielding and can therefore allow continuous monitoring at a stand-off distance of up to tens of metres. Furthermore, these detectors are highly sensitive to other radiation, including atmospheric muons and reactor neutrons, allowing further characterisation of facility operations. The nuSENTRY project studies the feasibility of using such a detector to characterise SMRs with antineutrinos and complementary radiation signatures as well as the potential for verifying reactor operations in the naval reactor context. This is done by using OpenMC-based reactor simulation to extrapolate reactor designs to SMR or naval designs, while different detection technologies are compared using GEANT4-based simulations to determine energy resolution and measurement times with respect to sensitivity.
Keywords: safeguards; antineutrino; non-proliferation; verification; reactor simulation