Comparison of the Savannah River Site Billet Active Well coincidence counter and two Californium shufflers

Conference · Mon Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1990 · Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States)

OSTI ID:5587263

Sadowski, E T; Griffin, J C ^[1]; Rinard, P M ^[2]

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

This paper reports that a Scrap Californium Shuffler at the Savannah River Site (SRS) was calibrated to assay the U-Al cores of billets (an intermediate step in the SRS reactor fuel fabrication cycle). The precision of the Scrap Shuffler over several years has been approximately 0.50%. A typical total uncertainty for the assay of a core on the Scrap Shuffler is approximately 0.33% for a twelve minute assay. The precision over several months and a typical total uncertainty for the Billet Active Well (neutron) Coincidence Counter (BAWCC) are approximately 1.0% and 1.9%, respectively, for a fifteen minute assay. A new Billet Californium Shuffler specifically designed for assaying SRS billets has yielded precision (over one month) and total uncertainty results of 0.40% and 0.69%, respectively, for an eight minute assay. The introduction of a measurement point into the fuel fabrication cycle to replace estimates based upon material weight will greatly enhance material and process control in the Reactor Materials area of SRS. The use of all three instruments provides a comparison of the relative merits of Active Well (neutron) Coincidence Counters (AWCCs) and shufflers for the assay of homogeneous and geometrically simple material containing {sup 235}U. The measurement precision, systematic and random uncertainties, as well as the procurement and operation of each instrument will be compared.

• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• OSTI ID: 5587263
• Report Number(s): CONF-910774--
• Journal Information: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States), Journal Name: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States) Vol. 20; ISSN NUMMB; ISSN 0362-0034
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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