Passive gamma analysis of the boiling-water-reactor assemblies

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2016.06.013· OSTI ID:1260577

Vo, D. ^[1]; Favalli, A. ^[1]; Grogan, B. ^[2]; Jansson, P. ^[3]; Liljenfeldt, H. ^[2]; Mozin, V. ^[4]; Schwalbach, P. ^[5]; Sjöland, A. ^[6]; Tobin, S. ^[1]; Trellue, H. ^[1]; Vaccaro, S.

---

1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
4. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
5. European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) (Luxemburg)
6. Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm (Sweden)

This research focused on the analysis of a set of stationary passive gamma measurements taken on the spent nuclear fuel assemblies froma boiling water reactor (BWR) using pulse height analysis data acquisition. The measurements were performed on 25 different BWR assemblies in 2014 at Sweden's Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab). This study was performed as part of the Next Generation of Safeguards Initiative Spent Fuel project to research the application of nondestructive assay (NDA) to spent fuel assemblies. The NGSI SF team is working to achieve the following technical goals moreeasily and efficiently than in the past using nondestructive assay (NDA)measurements of spent fuel assemblies:(1) verify the initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of facility declaration; (2) detect the diversion or replacement of pins, (3) estimate the plutonium mass,(4) estimate the decay heat, and (5) determine the reactivity of spent fuel assemblies. The final objective of this project is to quantify the capability of several integrated NDA instruments to meet the aforementioned goals using the combined signatures of neutrons, gamma rays, and heat. This reportpresents a selection of the measured data and summarizes an analysis of the results. Specifically, trends in the count rates measured for spectral lines from the following isotopes were analyzed as a function of the declared burnup and cooling time: ¹³⁷Cs, ¹⁵⁴Eu, ¹³⁴Cs, and to a lesser extent, ¹⁰⁶Ru and ¹⁴⁴Ce. From these measured count rates, redictive algorithms were developed to enable the estimation of the burnup and cooling time. Lastly, these algorithms were benchmarked on a set of assemblies not included in the standard assemblies set used by this research team.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396; AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1260577
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1261559; OSTI ID: 1703437
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-16-23293
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 830, Issue C; ISSN 0168-9002
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
Spent fuel
Passive gamma
Initial enrichment
Burnup
Boiling-Water-Reactor
BWR Cooling time
passive gamma
initial enrichment
burnup
cooling time
spent fuel NDA
BWR