Radiation Measurements for Verifying the Loading of Burnup Credit Casks

Conference · Fri Apr 12 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5926858

Ewing, R. I. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Radiation measurement have been used for many years to aid in the characterization, handling, and processing of spent nuclear fuel. Applications have included radiation protection, international safeguards, fissile content estimation for reprocessing, and verification of records and calculations. The application of radiation measurements to support the identification of spent fuel assemblies for loading into burnup credit'' transport casks is of interest in the cask development program. A possible alternative to measurements is to use the administrative controls and operational procedures that have been used at reactor sites that make use of burnup credit for spent fuel storage. Experience at such sites needs to be carefully analyzed for its applicability to the misloading and misidentification probabilities. Since there are over 40,000 spent fuel assemblies stored at more than one hundred locations in the US, it is important to determine carefully the necessity for and applicability of any measurement requirement. It is imperative that any measurement system selected be as simple, inexpensive, quick, and non-intrusive as possible. In this report we will consider the information available from measurements of spent fuel that has cooled for more than ten years and examine the possible application of existing instrumentation to verifying the loading of burnup credit casks.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5926858
• Report Number(s): SAND-91-2843C; CONF-920430-41; ON: DE92006805; TRN: 92-035502
• Resource Relation: Conference: International High Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference: Promoting Understanding Through Education and Communication, Las Vegas, NV (United States) , 12-16 Apr 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
42 ENGINEERING
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
BURNUP
MEASURING METHODS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SAFETY
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
CRITICALITY
GAMMA DETECTION
WASTE TRANSPORTATION
CASKS
CONTAINERS
DETECTION
MANAGEMENT
RADIATION DETECTION
STORAGE
TRANSPORT
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Measurements Alternative
Measurement System
Report
050900* - Nuclear Fuels- Transport
Handling
& Storage
420204 - Engineering- Shipping Containers