A shuffler for uranium billets

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5428952

Rinard, P M; Kroncke, K E; Schneider, C M; Biddle, R S ^[1]; Sadowski, E T; Studley, R V ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
2. Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States)

A shuffler has been designed, fabricated, and installed at the Westinghouse Savannah River Site to assay the {sup 235}U content of uranium-aluminum billets. Assay results are part of the materials accountability and quality control information on the billets that are destined to be extruded into reactor fuel tubes. The shuffler alternately irradiates a billet with neutrons from {sup 252}Cf and then counts delayed neutrons emitted from the billet. The neutrons from {sup 252}Cf are sufficiently energetic to penetrate a large, dense billet and uniformly assay the {sup 235}U throughout the billet's volume. An assay is completed in 8 min. A computer code controls the assay process and presents a limited menu of options to an operator and more expansive choices to supervisors. Each assay includes internal diagnostics that can warn an operator if an aspect of the measurement is outside normal bounds. Various measurement control assays can be taken in addition to the normal assay. During the acceptance test, the relative standard deviations of sets of repeated assays on billets were found to be 0.31% with 1050 g of {sup 235}U and 0.23% with about 1400 g. The calibration curve generated for a set of billets was linear through the origin. 5 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5428952
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-2206; CONF-910774--23; ON: DE91016073
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

055001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability-- Technical Aspects
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ACTINIDE ALLOYS
ACTINIDE ISO
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALLOYS
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
BARYONS
CALIBRATION
CALIFORNIUM 252
CALIFORNIUM ISOTOPES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DELAYED NEUTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FERMIONS
FISSION NEUTRONS
HADRONS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NEUTRONS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
URANIUM 235
URANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES