Development of Instrumentation for the Measurement and Safeguarding of Uranium in a Natural Uranium Conversion Plant.

Conference · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2005

OSTI ID:977981

Pickrell, M M ^[1]; Miller, M C ^[2]; Beddingfield, D H ^[3]; Langner, D C ^[4]; Eccleston, G W ^[5]

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1. Mark Manley
2. Michael C.
3. David H.
4. Diana C.
5. George W.

The need for enhanced/integrated safeguards approaches requires an analysis of activities that may be undertaken looking at the nuclear fuel cycle in its entirety. One example is uranium conversion facilities that are necessary to condition nuclear materials for feed to enrichment processes or for use in reactors. Estimates of nuclear source terms (neutron and gamma-ray) have been performed in support of defininig new measurement approaches to support enhanced and integrated safeguards. Source terms were analyzed for nuclear materials in feed and process streams as well as final products. The capability for enhanced safeguards based on neutron and gamma-ray nondestructive assay monitoring from locations throughout the process was evaluated. They have analyzed possible measurement methods, selected neutron totals counting as the most effective method for this application, and designed the experiment that will be fielded to test these calculations. They discuss their evaluations and show the calculations that demonstrate the dynamic range of the neutron totals measurement system.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 977981
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-05-4284; TRN: US1004168
• Resource Relation: Conference: Institute of Nuclear Materials Management 46th Annual Meeting, July 10-14, 2005, Phoenix, Arizona
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
MONITORING
NATURAL URANIUM
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
SAFEGUARDS
SOURCE TERMS
URANIUM