Noble-gas atmospheric monitoring for international safeguards at reprocessing facilities

Journal Article · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Science and Global Security

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/08929889708426444· OSTI ID:569450

Nakhleh, C W; Stanbro, W D; Fearey, B L ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); and others

Environmental monitoring of nuclear activities promises to play a large role in the improvements in international safeguards under the International Atomic Energy Agency`s Programme 93+2. Monitoring of stable noble-gas (Kr, Xe) isotopic abundances at reprocessing plant stacks appears to be able to yield information on the burnup and type of the fuel being processed. To estimate the size of these signals, model calculations of the production of stable Kr and Xe nuclides in reactor fuel and the subsequent dilution of these nuclides in the plant stack are carried out for two case studies: reprocessing of PWR fuel with a burnup of 35 GWd/tU, and reprocessing of CANDU fuel with a burnup of 1 GWd/tU. For each case, a maximum-likelihood analysis is used to determine the fuel burnup and type from the isotopic data.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 569450
• Journal Information: Science and Global Security, Journal Name: Science and Global Security Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 6; ISSN 0892-9882; ISSN SGSEE8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
AEROSOL MONITORING
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
RARE GASES
SAFEGUARDS