Sensitivity of the Antineutrino Emission from Reactors to the Fuel Content

We investigated the antineutrino signals for several reactor core designs. In all cases we found that the antineutrino signals are distinct. The signals are distinguishable by the combination of their magnitudes and their rate of change with fuel burn-up. If the thermal power of the reactor is known, the overall uncertainty in the antineutrino flux emitted from the reactor is about 5%. The quoted uncertainty in the number of antineutrinos per fission for {sup 235}U, {sup 239}Pu, and {sup 241}Pu is less than 3% and for {sup 238}U is 8%. When folded with the uncertainty in the thermal power measurement and the uncertainty in converting the thermal power to a fission rate, the total antineutrino flux is typically quoted with an accuracy of 3-5%. This overall uncertainty in the antineutrino flux, together with the calculations presented here, suggests that the differences in fuels for the class of reactor designed considered would be detectable using antineutrino monitoring.