Antineutrinos and Nonproliferation
| Date/Time: | Monday, 12 Nov 2018 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Phys 0003 |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: The idea of monitoring reactors with antineutrino detectors has been around since the discovery by Reines and Cowan of the (anti)neutrino using a reactor source. The monitoring concept was first pioneered by a Russian-Ukrainian collaboration in the 1980s. Since then, technology advances and improved theoretical understanding of reactor antineutrino emissions have led to ever-more precise extraction of parameters of interest for nonproliferation and cooperative monitoring. In this presentation, I'll briefly summarize advances in the last decade toward detectors that are capable of tracking the power and fissile content of operating reactors with good precision, and which operate a few tens of meters from the reactor core. I'll then describe a new effort aimed at increasing the distance from reactor to detector. This project, known as the WATer Cherenkov Monitor of Antineutrinos (WATCHMAN), will make use of a ~3500 ton gadolinium-doped water Cherenkov detector to register a handful of antineutrinos per week from a single reactor complex at 25 kilometer standoff. WATCHMAN will be deployed at the Advanced Instrumentation Test-bed (AIT) a new facility being constructed at the Boulby Underground Science Laboratory in Northern England. I'll describe the technology advance needed to make this demonstration possible, and possible cooperative monitoring concepts that could make use of the technology once demonstrated.
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a staff physicist and leads the Rare Event Detection Group in the Physics Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Since graduating from Columbia University in 1995 with a Ph.D. in physics, he has worked at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Labs on the development of advanced l radiation detectors for use in fundamental and applied physics. He has pioneered and helps bring to maturity what has become a wide international effort to develop antineutrino detectors as a tool for monitoring nuclear reactors. In the area of applied physics, his main interested is in the development of improved radiation detection techniques that facilitate and support global nuclear arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament. His interest in fundamental physics is primarily in the study of rare neutral particles, in particular the measurement of neutrino oscillations using reactor sources, and the search for direct interactions of dark matter in Earthly detectors.