Nondestructive uranium enrichment determination in process holdup deposits

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

OSTI ID:5665340

Hagenauer, R ^[1]

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1. Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

This paper reports on a new technique that has been developed for analyzing the gamma-ray spectra of uranium compounds to determine the relative abundance of all gamma-ray-emitting isotopes present. The technique works well for samples whose gamma-ray absorption properties are not well defined and has become an invaluable tool for characterizing inventory samples and residual uranium held up in process equipment. The gamma rays in a spectrum obtained with a hyperpure germanium detector are corrected for self-absorption, container attenuation, and branching ratios. The technique is being used to calculate the relative abundance of uranium isotopes (i.e., {sup 232}U, {sup 234}U, {sup 235}U, and {sup 238}U) contained in nuclear materials, to calculate the specific neutron activity emanating from deposits quantitatively measured using nondestructive neutron measurement techniques, and to identify and correct for interference from other neutron-emitting isotopes (e.g., {sup 237}Np). The technique works well on a variety of deposits (e.g., UO{sub 2}F{sub 2} and UF{sub 6}) even if the deposits are infinitely thick to 186-keV gamma rays or are contained in thick-walled pipes. To date, results indicate excellent agreement between calculated and assigned enrichment values.

• OSTI ID: 5665340
• Report Number(s): CONF-910774-; CODEN: NUMMB
• Journal Information: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States), Vol. 20; Conference: 32. Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) annual meeting, New Orleans, LA (United States), 28-31 Jul 1991; ISSN 0362-0034
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ENRICHMENT
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
URANIUM
ABUNDANCE
BRANCHING RATIO
CONTAINERS
GAMMA SPECTRA
INVENTORIES
KEV RANGE 100-1000
NEPTUNIUM 237
PIPES
PROCESSING
URANIUM 232
URANIUM 234
URANIUM 235
URANIUM 238
URANIUM FLUORIDES
URANIUM OXIDES
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDE ISO
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ACTINIDES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HEAVY ION DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
HEAVY NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
KEV RANGE
MAGNESIUM 28 DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
METALS
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NANOSEC LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NEON 24 DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
NEPTUNIUM ISOTOPES
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTRA
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
URANIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
050500* - Nuclear Fuels- Uranium Enrichment
440103 - Radiation Instrumentation- Nuclear Spectroscopic Instrumentation