Cosmic ray muon computed tomography of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage casks

Poulson, Daniel Cris; Durham, J. Matthew; Guardincerri, Elena; Morris, Christopher; Bacon, Jeffrey Darnell; Plaud-Ramos, Kenie Omar; Morley, Deborah Jean; Hecht, Adam A.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2016.10.040

Cosmic ray muon computed tomography of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage casks

Journal Article · Sat Oct 22 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.2016.10.040· OSTI ID:1345145

Poulson, Daniel Cris ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Bacon, Jeffrey Darnell ^[2]; Plaud-Ramos, Kenie Omar ^[2]; Morley, Deborah Jean ^[2]; Hecht, Adam A. ^[3]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Radiography with cosmic ray muon scattering has proven to be a successful method of imaging nuclear material through heavy shielding. Of particular interest is monitoring dry storage casks for diversion of plutonium contained in spent reactor fuel. Using muon tracking detectors that surround a cylindrical cask, cosmic ray muon scattering can be simultaneously measured from all azimuthal angles, giving complete tomographic coverage of the cask interior. This article describes the first application of filtered back projection algorithms, typically used in medical imaging, to cosmic ray muon scattering imaging. The specific application to monitoring spent nuclear fuel in dry storage casks is investigated via GEANT4 simulations. With a cylindrical muon tracking detector surrounding a typical spent fuel cask, simulations indicate that missing fuel bundles can be detected with a statistical significance of ~18σ in less than two days exposure and a sensitivity at 1σ to a 5% missing portion of a fuel bundle. Finally, we discuss potential detector technologies and geometries.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (NA-20)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1345145

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--16-21971

Journal Information:: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Journal Name: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment Vol. 842; ISSN 0168-9002

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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A new semi-empirical model for cosmic ray muon flux estimation Bae, Junghyun; Chatzidakis, Stylianos Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Vol. 2022, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptac016	journal	January 2022
A generalized muon trajectory estimation algorithm with energy loss for application to muon tomography Chatzidakis, Stylianos; Liu, Zhengzhi; Hayward, Jason P. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5024671	journal	March 2018
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Antineutrino monitoring of spent nuclear fuel Brdar, Vedran; Huber, Patrick; Kopp, Joachim arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1606.06309	text	January 2016

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