Improving the Assessment of the Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles (2013)
Chapter: Appendix E: Glossary and Acronyms
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Appendix D: Presentations and Committee Meetings
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary and Acronyms." National Research Council. 2013. Improving the Assessment of the Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/18335.
Appendix E: Glossary and Acronyms
GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS
The terms are defined in this glossary for the purpose of usage in this particular report.
| Adaptive adversary | An opponent that reacts to actions and protective measures by constantly adapting or inventing new pathways to do harm |
| Best practice | An approach or method that has consistently proven to be exceptionally effective and is used as a standard against which other approaches are gauged |
| Case-by-case assessments | A systematic analysis of a problem using multidisciplinary teams of subject matter experts assembled to address a specific problem |
| Decision maker | Programmatic decision maker within the U.S. government |
| Extrinsic attributes | Properties of a nuclear fuel cycle dependent on implementation of safeguards, operations, and facility details |
| Intrinsic attributes | Properties inherent to a nuclear fuel cycle, usually related to materials and processes |
| Predefined framework | A structured analysis used to assess the proliferation resistance of a fuel cycle, which contains predetermined lists of detailed attributes of the fuel cycle and a predetermined approach for scoring and combining these attributes to determine the cycle’s overall proliferation resistance |
| Policy maker | A person within the U.S. government who is making policy decisions or is responsible for enacting policies |
| Political science | A social science concerned primarily with the structure, behavior, and interactions of states, governments, and other political institutions |
| Probabilistic risk assessment | A method of analyzing risks associated with complex, interrelated systems by assessing what can go wrong, how likely it is to occur, and what the consequences are if it does happen (Kaplan and Garrick 1981) |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary and Acronyms." National Research Council. 2013. Improving the Assessment of the Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/18335.
| Proliferation | The development of and/or acquisition of a nuclear weapon by a non–nuclear weapon state |
| Proliferation resistance | “The characteristics of a nuclear energy system that impede the diversion or undeclared production of nuclear material or misuse of technology by states in order to acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices” (IAEA 2002) |
| Proliferation resistant | Used to describe nuclear fuel cycles or components of a fuel cycle to indicate an increased barrier to proliferation, often misunderstood or misinterpreted as “proliferation proof” |
| Proliferation risk | The committee purposefully did not define this term but suggests its definition be determined by analysts and users of the assessments. One definition introduced to the committee was, “The probability that a host-state will choose to proliferate along a particular or multiple pathways (L), the probability of success along that path (P), and the consequences of proliferation (C).” This definition is used throughout the report but should not be interpreted as endorsement by the committee |
| Social science | An academic area of study that examines the behavior and development of human society and the interaction of individuals to and in society |
ACRONYMS
| CANDU | CANada Deuterium Uranium reactor |
| DOE | U.S. Department of Energy |
| DOE-NE | DOE Office of Nuclear Energy |
| DOE-NNSA | DOE National Nuclear Security Administration |
| DUPIC | direct use of pressurized water reactor spent fuel in CANDU |
| E&R | enrichment and reprocessing |
| EPA | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| FOM | Figure of Merit |
| GEN III | Generation III; current nuclear fuel cycles |
| GEN IIIa | Generation III; advanced light water reactors |
| GEN IV | Generation IV; future nuclear fuel cycles |
| GIF | Generation IV International Forum |
| GNEP | Global Energy Nuclear Partnership |
| IAEA | International Atomic Energy Agency |
| INFCIRFC | IAEA Information Circular |
| INPRO | International Project on Innovative Reactors and Nuclear Fuel Cycles |
| JAEA | Japan Atomic Energy Agency |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary and Acronyms." National Research Council. 2013. Improving the Assessment of the Proliferation Risk of Nuclear Fuel Cycles. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/18335.
| MYRRHA | a flexible fast spectrum research reactor at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre in Mol |
| NAS | National Academy of Sciences |
| NCA | Nuclear Cooperation Agreement |
| NNWS | non-nuclear weapons state |
| NPAS | Nonproliferation Assessment Statement |
| NPT | Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons |
| NRC | National Research Council |
| NSG | Nuclear Suppliers Group |
| OUO | official use only |
| PEIS | programmatic environmental impact statement |
| PR&PP | Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection |
| PRA | probabilistic risk assessments |
| RIPA | Risk-Informed Probabilistic Analysis |
| SAPRA | Simplified Approach for Proliferation Resistance Assessment |
| SNM | special nuclear material |
| TAMU MAUA | Texas A&M University Multi-Attribute Utility Analysis |
| USNRC | U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
| TOPS | Technical Opportunities to Increase Proliferation Resistance of Global Civilian Nuclear Power Systems |
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