Critical masses of highly enriched uranium diluted with matrix material.

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:975965

Sanchez, R G ^[1]; Loaiza, D J ^[2]; Kimpland, R H ^[3]

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1. Rene G.
2. David J.
3. Robert H.

Radioactive waste containing fissile material is frequently encountered in decontamination and decommissioning activities. For the most part, this waste is placed in containers or drums and stored in storage facilities. The amount of fissile material in each drum is generally small because of criticality safety limits that have been calculated with computer transport codes such as MCNP,1 KENO,2 or ONEDANT.3 To the best of our knowledge, no experimental critical mass data are available to verify the accuracy of these calculations or any calculations for systems containing fissile material (U-235, Pu-239, U-233) in contact with matrix material such as Al2O3, CaO, SiO2, Al, MgO, etc. The experiments presented in this paper establish the critical masses of highly enriched uranium foils diluted to various X/235U ratios with polyethylene and SiO2, polyethylene and aluminum, polyethylene and MgO, polyethylene and Gd, polyethylene and Fe, and moderated and reflected with polyethylene. In addition, these critical mass experimental data will be used to validate cross section data.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 975965
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-02-0343; LA-UR-02-343
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACCURACY
ALUMINIUM
COMPUTERS
CONTAINERS
CRITICAL MASS
CRITICALITY
CROSS SECTIONS
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
FISSILE MATERIALS
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
MATRIX MATERIALS
POLYETHYLENES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR PHYSICS
SAFETY
STORAGE FACILITIES
TRANSPORT
WASTES