A shuffler for uranium billets

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States)

OSTI ID:5592325

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 (US)

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. This paper reports that 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 warm 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.

• OSTI ID: 5592325
• Report Number(s): CONF-910774--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States) Journal Volume: 20
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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US DOE
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