Design of standards for nondestructive assay of special nuclear material

Conference · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:475633

Smith, Jr, H A; Stewart, J E ^[1]; Ruhter, W ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

Nondestructive assay (NDA) of special nuclear material (SNM) involves a variety of measurement techniques, instruments, and nuclear materials. High-quality measurements require well-characterized SNM standards that represent the expected range of mass, chemical composition, and physical properties of the SNM to be measured. Due to the very limited commercial availability of NDA standards, facilities must usually produce their own standards, both to meet their specific measurement needs and to comply with existing regulations. This paper will describe the current extent to which NDA standards are commercially available. The authors will further describe the types of NDA standards used to calibrate and verify the measurement techniques commonly used in the safeguards of SNM. Several types of NDA standards will be discussed in detail to illustrate the considerations that go into specifying and designing traceable, representative standards for materials accounting measurements.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 475633
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--97-766; CONF-970366--4; ON: DE97005020
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
CALIBRATION STANDARDS
DESIGN
FISSILE MATERIALS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
RADIATION MONITORING