Spent fuel burnup estimation by Cerenkov glow intensity measurement

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/23.317383· OSTI ID:6940099

Kuribara, Masayuki ^[1]

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1. Central Research Inst. of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan). Communication and Information Research Lab.

The Cerenkov glow images from irradiated fuel assemblies of boiling-water reactors (BWR) and pressurized-water reactors (PWR) are generally used for inspections. For this purpose, a new UV-I.I. CVD (ultra-violet light image intensifier Cerenkov viewing device), has been developed. This new device can measure the intensity of the Cerenkov glow from a spent fuel assembly, thus making it possible to estimate the burnup of the fuel assembly by comparing the Cerenkov glow intensity to the reference intensity. The experiment was carried out on BWR spent fuel assemblies and the results show that burnups are estimated within 20% accuracy compared to the declared burnups for the tested spent fuel assemblies for cooling times ranging from 900--2.000 d.

• OSTI ID: 6940099
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 41:5; ISSN 0018-9499
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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