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Science & Global Security
The Technical Basis for Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation Initiatives
Volume 19, 2011 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

Using the Graphite Isotope Ratio Method to Verify the DPRK's Plutonium-Production Declaration

Pages 121-129 | Received 24 Jun 2009, Accepted 11 Mar 2011, Published online: 12 Jul 2011

NOTES AND REFERENCES

  • Kessler , Glenn . 2 July 2008 . “Message to U.S. Preceded Nuclear Declaration by North Korea,” . The Washington Post , : A7 The DPRK's declaration did not include information on its nuclear-weapon and uranium enrichment activities
  • Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) . 24 October 2008 . “North Korea Declares 31 Kilograms of Plutonium,” . Global Security Newswire , According to Selig S. Harrison who visited Pyongyang in early January 2009, the DPRK said that it has weaponized almost 31 kilograms of plutonium. Choe Sang-Hun, “North Korea Says It Has ‘Weaponized’ Plutonium,” New York Times, 18 January 2009, A8
  • Gesh , C. J. February 2004 . “A Graphite Isotope Ratio Method Primer—A Method for Estimating Plutonium Production in Graphite Moderated Reactors,” . PNNL-14568, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory .
  • Fetter , Steve . 1993 . “Nuclear Archaeology: Verifying Declarations of Fissile-Material Production,” . Science & Global Security , 3 : 237 – 259 .
  • Wood , Thomas W. , Milazzo , Matthew D. , Reichmuth , Barbara A. and Bedell , Jeffrey . Summer 2002 . “Establishing Confident Accounting for Russian Weapons Plutonium,” . The Nonproliferation Review , : 126 – 137 . B.D. Reid et al., “Graphite Isotope Ratio Method Development Report: Irradiation Test Demonstration of Uranium as a Low Fluence Indicator,” PNNL-13056, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (September 1999)
  • Gesh , C. J. op. cit ,
  • Gesh , C. J. op. cit , Graphite samples of about 1-cm in diameter and 2-cm in length can be extracted from any location in the core by commercially available automated graphite reactor sampling machines. For the measurement of key isotopic ratios in the samples, mass-spectrometry measurement techniques are used. Secondary ionization mass spectrometry is used to analyze boron isotopic ratios, while thermal ionization mass spectrometry is used to analyze titanium, uranium and plutonium ratios
  • April 2008 . “ MCNPX® (MCNP eXtended) is a Monte Carlo radiation transport computer code that transports nearly all particles at nearly all energies and performs depletion calculations of nuclear fuels. John S. Hendricks et al., “MCNPX® 2.6.0 Extensions,” Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-UR-08-2216 ” .
  • “ Wolfram Mathematica 7® ” . <http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/index.html>
  • Albright , David and O’Neill , Kevin , eds. 2000 . “ The 50 MWe British Calder Hall reactor is believed to have been the model of the 5 MWe reactor ” . In Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle , 146 Washington, DC : The Institute for Science and International Security .
  • November 2008 . “ Personal communication with the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) ” .
  • Albright , David and O’Neill , Kevin . op. cit. , 119
  • “ For additional information on the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center see for example ” . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongbyon_Nuclear_Scientific_Research_Center>
  • 25 April 2009 . The DPRK announced that it would restore the nuclear fuel fabrication facility and the reprocessing facility. “Timeline of North Korea's Nuclear, Missile Programs,” . Fox News , http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517880,00.html
  • Albright , David and O’Neill , Kevin . op. cit. , 118
  • “ The accumulated core average burnups of the 5-MWe reactor between February 2003 and April 2005 and between June 2005 and mid-July 2007 are about 220 MWd/tHM and 210 MWd/tHM, respectively, assuming 20 MW thermal power and a capacity factor of 70 percent ” .
  • June 2009 . “ Based on the 1/4 core model of the 5 MWe reactor containing spent fuel with average burnup of 1,100 MWd/tHM, the simulated B10/B11 ratios of graphite samples were calculated by an expert at KAERI using a three dimensional Monte Carlo burnup code, developed by Seoul National University and KAERI. The calculations assume all control rods are out from their channels. Personal communication from KAERI ” .
  • “ To calculate the expected cumulative plutonium production (grams/cm3) for any given B10/B11 value, the following equation is used to fit the curve in Figure 4 using Wolfram Mathematica®: Pu(milligrams/cm3) = −13.2 − 23.3x − 1.87x−2, where x = log(B10/B11) ” .
  • “ Wolfram Mathematica 7®. Functional form of the fitting function in this study is F(x, y, z) = 0.0307848 – 1.74155x10−7x2 − 1.75037x10−7y2 − 5.13598x10−7z – 1.83897x10−7z2 ” .
  • June 2009 . “ Personal communication with KAERI ” .

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