Neutron method for NDA in the Sapphire Project
- Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
The implementation of Project Sapphire, the top-secret mission to the Republic of Kazakhstan to recover weapons-grade nuclear materials, consisted of four major elements: (1) repacking of fissile material from Kazakh containers into suitable U.S. containers; (2) nondestructive analyses (NDA) to quantify the {sup 235}U content of each container for nuclear criticality safety and compliance purposes; (3) packaging of the fissile material containers into 6M/2R drums, which are internationally approved for shipping fissile material; and (4) shipping or transport of the recovered fissile material to the United States. This paper discusses the development and application of a passive neutron counting technique used in the NDA phase of the Sapphire operations to analyze uranium/beryllium (U/Be) alloys and compounds for {sup 235}U content.
- OSTI ID:
- 186574
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950601-; ISSN 0003-018X; TRN: 96:006997
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 72; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), Philadelphia, PA (United States), 25-29 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Project SAPPHIRE uranium-beryllium dose rate analysis
Description of Project Sapphire. Revision 1