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Feedback from operational experience of on-site deployment of bias defect analysis with COMPUCEA

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Abstract

The combined procedure for uranium concentration and enrichment assay (COMPUCEA 2nd generation) is a transportable analytical system that combines L-edge transmission and γ-ray spectrometry for high-accuracy, on-site uranium concentration and enrichment assays of uranium bearing materials. This paper presents: (i) a summary of the establishment of an integrated measurement system, consisting of specialized hardware and software; (ii) the results of the continued evaluation of the system’s analytical performance against primary analytical methods; (iii) the build-up of expertise in performing COMPUCEA analysis in the field, and (iv) recent extensions of the system’s analytical capabilities addressing new safeguards verification challenges.

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Acknowledgments

The COMPUCEA authorization and implementation have resulted from combined efforts of several divisions across the IAEA’s department of safeguards and efficient support of EC JRC ITU provided through the European Commission’s support task A 01507.

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Correspondence to Andrey Berlizov.

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Berlizov, A., Schachinger, A., Roetsch, K. et al. Feedback from operational experience of on-site deployment of bias defect analysis with COMPUCEA. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 307, 1901–1909 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4364-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4364-2

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