Nondestructive assay of special nuclear material for uranium fuel-fabrication facilities
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- European Commission Joint Research Center, Ispra (Italy)
A high-quality materials accounting system and effective international inspections in uranium fuel-fabrication facilities depend heavily upon accurate nondestructive assay measurements of the facility`s nuclear materials. While item accounting can monitor a large portion of the facility inventory (fuel rods, assemblies, storage items), the contents of all such items and mass values for all bulk materials must be based on quantitative measurements. Weight measurements, combined with destructive analysis of process samples, can provide highly accurate quantitative information on well-characterized and uniform product materials. However, to cover the full range of process materials and to provide timely accountancy data on hard-to-measure items and rapid verification of previous measurements, radiation-based nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques play an important role. NDA for uranium fuel fabrication facilities relies on passive gamma spectroscopy for enrichment and U isotope mass values of medium-to-low-density samples and holdup deposits; it relies on active neutron techniques for U-235 mass values of high-density and heterogeneous samples. This paper will describe the basic radiation-based nondestructive assay techniques used to perform these measurements. The authors will also discuss the NDA measurement applications for international inspections of European fuel-fabrication facilities.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 510319
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-97-1195; CONF-9704134-1; ON: DE97007172; TRN: 97:014846
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Tripartite international conference on MPC&A for uranium fuel fabrication facilities, Obninsk (Russian Federation), 21-25 Apr 1997; Other Information: PBD: [1997]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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