Recommendations for the {sup 242}Pu content evaluation using a new algorithm
- Commissariate a l`Energie Atomique Centre d`Etudes Nuclearies de Cadarache, Saint-Paul-les-Durance (France)
- COGEMA, Hague (France)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
Plutonium isotopic determination by gamma spectrometry is an important nondestructive assay (NDA) method widely used by laboratories, operators, and safeguards directorates. Significant improvements have been made in the last few years on plutonium gamma-ray analysis, which have led to a very low discrepancy between gamma measurement and mass spectrometry ({le} {+-}2%) for the detectable isotopes. This leads to the fact that one important source of error is now the {sup 242}Pu content evaluation using correlation with the other isotopes. Moreover, the {sup 242}Pu content on the total plutonium is not negligible for typical burnup (it can reach 8 to 10% for burnup of {approximately}40 GWd/tonne U). This means that a lack of knowledge on the {sup 242}Pu content evaluation will generate an important error on the total plutonium mass estimation. The correlation used by many codes (like MGA) is as follows: {sup 242}Pu = C{sup 240}Pu/Pu{sup 239} {sup 241}Pu/{sup 239}Pu. This correlation leads to an average difference between NDA evaluation and mass spectrometry of {approximately}20%.
- OSTI ID:
- 217918
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9509215--
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Journal Issue: Suppl.1 Vol. 72; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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