Following the 1977 suggestion by Mikaélyan and his collaborators of using neutrino detection for nuclear monitoring,[1][2] little work was pursued regarding implementation of the concept until researchers from the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories constructed a prototype antineutrino detector using 0.64 ton of Gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator and placed it 25 m from the core of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California.
[3][4][5] At an October 2008 meeting of the IAEA Novel Technologies group in Vienna, the results of the SONGS experiment were reviewed and found to demonstrate the potential for the approach.
Their proposal included the results of extensive simulations illustrating the viability of the approach[6] and is currently being evaluated by that body as a potential safeguard against nuclear weapons proliferation.
The design criteria specified by the IAEA call for a reactor monitoring tool which is compact, portable, inexpensive, safe, and remotely controllable.
For example, the detection of a change in the antineutrino spectrum consistent with the removal of a large quantity of 239Pu from the reactor would raise suspicions and warrant further investigation.