Analysis of Spent, Highly Enriched Reactor Fuel by Delayed Neutron Interrogation

Conference · Sun Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:7240024

Piper, T. C. ^[1]; Kirkham, R. J. ^[1]; Eccleston, G. W. ^[2]; Menlove, H. O. ^[2]

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1. Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Co., Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Design aspects are given of a neutron shuffler designed to measure fissile material content of spent, highly enriched reactor fuel. The mode of operation used results of analyzing 176 fuel packages and recommended system improvements are also discussed. Four measurements were made on each of the fuel packages with the mean of the 176 standard deviations being 1.7 percent of value. The maximum individual standard deviation was 6.3%. Use of a stronger neutron source, an improved neutron source shuffler, an improved fuel package motion system and modernized computer system should permit significant improvement of present performance.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Co., Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-84ID12435
• OSTI ID: 7240024
• Report Number(s): WINCO-11543; CONF-891118-11; ON: DE92017473
• Resource Relation: Conference: International Topical Meeting on Safety Margins in Criticality Safety , San Francisco, CA (United States), 26 Nov - 1 Dec 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NUCLEAR REACTION ANALYZERS
PERFORMANCE
SPENT FUELS
DELAYED NEUTRON ANALYSIS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FISSILE MATERIALS
FLUXMETERS
NEUTRON DETECTORS
STATISTICAL DATA
URANIUM 235
ACTINIDE ISO
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FISSIONABLE MATERIALS
FUELS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INFORMATION
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR REACTION ANALYSIS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTOR MATERIALS
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
URANIUM ISOTOPES
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Neutron Shuffler
Fissile Material Content Measuring
Analyzing
Measurements
Fuel Package Motion System
Modernized Computer System
Performance Improvement
050800* - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
440103 - Radiation Instrumentation- Nuclear Spectroscopic Instrumentation