Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering

Abstract

Most of the plutonium in the world resides inside spent nuclear reactor fuel rods. This high-level radioactive waste is commonly held in long-term storage within large, heavily shielded casks. Currently, international nuclear safeguards inspectors have no stand-alone method of verifying the amount of reactor fuel stored within a sealed cask. In this paper, we demonstrate experimentally that measurements of the scattering angles of cosmic-ray muons, which pass through a storage cask, can be used to determine if spent fuel assemblies are missing without opening the cask. Finally, this application of technology and methods commonly used in high-energy particle physics provides a potential solution to this long-standing problem in international nuclear safeguards.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [3]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
OSTI Identifier:
1435520
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1432575
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-27060
Journal ID: ISSN 2331-7019; TRN: US1900063
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Applied
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2331-7019
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; muon radiography; muon tomography; spent fuel; safeguards

Citation Formats

Durham, J. M., Poulson, D., Bacon, J., Chichester, D. L., Guardincerri, E., Morris, C. L., Plaud-Ramos, K., Schwendiman, W., Tolman, J. D., and Winston, P. Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044013.
Copy to clipboard
Durham, J. M., Poulson, D., Bacon, J., Chichester, D. L., Guardincerri, E., Morris, C. L., Plaud-Ramos, K., Schwendiman, W., Tolman, J. D., & Winston, P. Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044013
Copy to clipboard
Durham, J. M., Poulson, D., Bacon, J., Chichester, D. L., Guardincerri, E., Morris, C. L., Plaud-Ramos, K., Schwendiman, W., Tolman, J. D., and Winston, P. Tue . "Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044013. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1435520.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1435520,
title = {Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering},
author = {Durham, J. M. and Poulson, D. and Bacon, J. and Chichester, D. L. and Guardincerri, E. and Morris, C. L. and Plaud-Ramos, K. and Schwendiman, W. and Tolman, J. D. and Winston, P.},
abstractNote = {Most of the plutonium in the world resides inside spent nuclear reactor fuel rods. This high-level radioactive waste is commonly held in long-term storage within large, heavily shielded casks. Currently, international nuclear safeguards inspectors have no stand-alone method of verifying the amount of reactor fuel stored within a sealed cask. In this paper, we demonstrate experimentally that measurements of the scattering angles of cosmic-ray muons, which pass through a storage cask, can be used to determine if spent fuel assemblies are missing without opening the cask. Finally, this application of technology and methods commonly used in high-energy particle physics provides a potential solution to this long-standing problem in international nuclear safeguards.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044013},
journal = {Physical Review Applied},
number = 4,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044013
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: The two muon trackers around the MC-10 cask. One tracker is elevated by 1.2 m relative to the other to sample the muon flux at smaller zenith angles. Both are housed inside weatherproof containers. One of the lifting trunnions that is used as a reference point to alignmore » the detectors with the fuel basket is visible on the bottom left of the cask body.« less
All figures and tables (6 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Design of the forward straw tube tracker for the PANDA experiment
journal, June 2017

Discrimination of high-Z materials in concrete-filled containers using muon scattering tomography
journal, July 2016

Detecting special nuclear material using muon-induced neutron emission
journal, July 2015

  • Guardincerri, Elena; Bacon, Jeffrey; Borozdin, Konstantin
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 789
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2015.03.070

Radiographic imaging with cosmic-ray muons
journal, March 2003

  • Borozdin, Konstantin N.; Hogan, Gary E.; Morris, Christopher
  • Nature, Vol. 422, Issue 6929
  • DOI: 10.1038/422277a

Muon trackers for imaging a nuclear reactor
journal, September 2016

Review of Particle Physics
journal, October 2016

Assessing the feasibility of interrogating nuclear waste storage silos using cosmic-ray muons
journal, June 2015

DIAPHANE: muon tomography applied to volcanoes, civil engineering, archaelogy
journal, February 2017

Design characteristics and fabrication of radioisotope heat sources for space missions
journal, January 2001

A nuclear fuel verification system using digital imaging of Cherenkov light
journal, January 1997

  • Michael Attas, E.; Burton, Gordon R.; Dennis Chen, J.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 384, Issue 2-3
  • DOI: 10.1016/S0168-9002(96)00937-0

Interaction of cosmic ray muons with spent nuclear fuel dry casks and determination of lower detection limit
journal, August 2016

  • Chatzidakis, S.; Choi, C. K.; Tsoukalas, L. H.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 828
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2016.03.084

Radiographic visualization of magma dynamics in an erupting volcano
journal, March 2014

  • Tanaka, Hiroyuki K. M.; Kusagaya, Taro; Shinohara, Hiroshi
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4381

Antineutrino Monitoring of Spent Nuclear Fuel
journal, November 2017

Detection of high- Z objects using multiple scattering of cosmic ray muons
journal, October 2003

  • Priedhorsky, William C.; Borozdin, Konstantin N.; Hogan, Gary E.
  • Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 74, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1606536

Image reconstruction and material Z discrimination via cosmic ray muon radiography
journal, March 2004

  • Schultz, L. J.; Borozdin, K. N.; Gomez, J. J.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 519, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2003.11.035

Review of recent advances of radioisotope power systems
journal, March 2008

Review of possible applications of cosmic muon tomography
journal, December 2016

Geant4—a simulation toolkit
journal, July 2003

  • Agostinelli, S.; Allison, J.; Amako, K.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 506, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/S0168-9002(03)01368-8

Nuclear waste imaging and spent fuel verification by muon tomography
journal, March 2013

Application of Muon Tomography to Detect Radioactive Sources Hidden in Scrap Metal Containers
journal, August 2014

  • Furlan, Matteo; Rigoni, Andrea; Vanini, Sara
  • IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 61, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2014.2321116

Cosmic ray muon computed tomography of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage casks
journal, January 2017

  • Poulson, D.; Durham, J. M.; Guardincerri, E.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 842
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2016.10.040

The ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
journal, August 2008

Characterising encapsulated nuclear waste using cosmic-ray muon tomography
journal, March 2015

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons
journal, December 2016

  • Chatzidakis, Stylianos; Choi, Chan K.; Tsoukalas, Lefteri H.
  • IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 63, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2016.2618009

Search for Hidden Chambers in the Pyramids
journal, February 1970

The design and performance of a scintillating-fibre tracker for the cosmic-ray muon tomography of legacy nuclear waste containers
journal, May 2014

  • Clarkson, A.; Hamilton, D. J.; Hoek, M.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 745
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2014.01.062
    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Application of muon tomography to fuel cask monitoring
    journal, December 2018

    • Poulson, Dan; Bacon, Jeff; Durham, Matt
    • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137
    • DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0052

    Novel muon imaging techniques
    journal, December 2018

    • Yang, Guangliang; Clarkson, Tony; Gardner, Simon
    • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137
    • DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0062

    Imaging the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore using cosmic rays
    journal, December 2018

    • Guardincerri, E.; Bacon, J. D.; Barros, N.
    • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137
    • DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0136
      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      FIG. 1 (p. 4)figure
      FIG. 2 (p. 4)figure
      FIG. 3 (p. 5)figure
      FIG. 4 (p. 6)figure
      FIG. 5 (p. 7)figure
      FIG. 6 (p. 7)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: