²³⁵U Determination using In-Beam Delayed Neutron Counting Technique at the NRU Reactor

Conference · Tue Nov 17 00:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1226894

Andrews, M. T. ^[1]; Bentoumi, G. ^[2]; Corcoran, E. C. ^[3]; Dimayuga, I. ^[2]; Kelly, D. G. ^[3]; Li, L. ^[2]; Sur, B. ^[2]; Rogge, R. B. ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Canadian Nuclear Labs., Chalk River, ON (Canada)
3. Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON (United States)

This paper describes a collaborative effort that saw the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC)’s delayed neutron and gamma counting apparatus transported to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) for use in the neutron beamline at the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor. Samples containing mg quantities of fissile material were re-interrogated, and their delayed neutron emissions measured. This collaboration offers significant advantages to previous delayed neutron research at both CNL and RMC. This paper details the determination of ²³⁵U content in enriched uranium via the assay of in-beam delayed neutron magnitudes and temporal behavior. ²³⁵U mass was determined with an average absolute error of ± 2.7 %. This error is lower than that obtained at RMCC for the assay of ²³⁵U content in aqueous solutions (3.6 %) using delayed neutron counting. Delayed neutron counting has been demonstrated to be a rapid, accurate, and precise method for special nuclear material detection and identification.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1226894
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-24339; TRN: US1700245
• Resource Relation: Conference: American Nuclear Society Conference, Washington, DC (United States), 9 Nov 2015
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
DELAYED NEUTRONS
URANIUM 235
NRU REACTOR
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
ENRICHED URANIUM
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
NEUTRON EMISSION
DATA COVARIANCES
DETECTION
MASS
FISSILE MATERIALS
ISOTOPE RATIO
NEUTRON BEAMS
neutron beamline
delayed neutron counting