NDA Technique for the Assay of Wet Plutonium Oxalate

Conference · Mon Jun 30 04:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5270415

Marshall, R. S. ^[1]; Canada, T. R. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

A method has been developed to quantitatively measure batches of wet plutonium oxalate. The method is based on a count of coincidence neutrons to which a correction is applied for the effects of neutron moderation by water. A therma-neutron coincidence counter (TNC) with two concentric rings of ³He detectors provides the signal needed for the water correction. The signal is the ratio of neutron counts between the detector rings that changes with the percent of water in plutonium oxalate. To evaluate the measurement technique, 26 batches of plutonium oxalate were measured in an in-line TNC. The evaluation showed the measurements to be essentially unbiased and precise to 2.2%.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5270415
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--80-1780; CONF-800655--13
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

055001 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability-- Technical Aspects
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400103* -- Radiometric & Radiochemical Procedures-- (-1987)
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ACCURACY
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
CARBOXYLIC ACID SALTS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COINCIDENCE METHODS
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
Evaluation
HE-3 COUNTERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
Measurements
Methods
NEUTRON DETECTORS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
OXALATES
PLUTONIUM COMPOUNDS
PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS