Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor]

Sitaraman, Shivakumar; Ham, Young S.; Gharibyan, Narek; Peixoto, Orpet J. M.; Diaz, Gustavo

doi:10.13182/NT14-63

Title: Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor]

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Abstract

Here, fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool are stored by suspending them in two vertically stacked layers at the Atucha Unit 1 nuclear power plant (Atucha-I). This introduces the unique problem of verifying the presence of fuel in either layer without physically moving the fuel assemblies. Given that the facility uses both natural uranium and slightly enriched uranium at 0.85 wt% ²³⁵U and has been in operation since 1974, a wide range of burnups and cooling times can exist in any given pool. A gross defect detection tool, the spent fuel neutron counter (SFNC), has been used at the site to verify the presence of fuel up to burnups of 8000 MWd/t. At higher discharge burnups, the existing signal processing software of the tool was found to fail due to nonlinearity of the source term with burnup.

Authors:

Sitaraman, Shivakumar ^[1]; Ham, Young S. ^[1]; Gharibyan, Narek ^[1]; Peixoto, Orpet J. M. ^[2]; Diaz, Gustavo ^[3]

Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
National Regulatory Authority - Argentina, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Publication Date:: Mon Mar 27 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1228002

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-656062
Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5450

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Nuclear Technology

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 192; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5450

Publisher:: Taylor & Francis - formerly American Nuclear Society (ANS)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION; 11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND RUEL MATERIALS; 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; Spent Nuclear Fuel; Gross Defects; Nuclear Safeguards

Citation Formats


                    Sitaraman, Shivakumar, Ham, Young S., Gharibyan, Narek, Peixoto, Orpet J. M., and Diaz, Gustavo. Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor].  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.13182/NT14-63.

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                    Sitaraman, Shivakumar, Ham, Young S., Gharibyan, Narek, Peixoto, Orpet J. M., & Diaz, Gustavo. Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor].  United States.  https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-63

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                    Sitaraman, Shivakumar, Ham, Young S., Gharibyan, Narek, Peixoto, Orpet J. M., and Diaz, Gustavo. Mon .  
"Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor]".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-63.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1228002.

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@article{osti_1228002,

  title        = {Methodology and Software for Gross Defect Detection of Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Atucha-I Reactor [Novel Methodology and Software for Spent Fuel Gross Defect Detection at the Atucha-I Reactor]},

  author       = {Sitaraman, Shivakumar and Ham, Young S. and Gharibyan, Narek and Peixoto, Orpet J. M. and Diaz, Gustavo},

  abstractNote = {Here, fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool are stored by suspending them in two vertically stacked layers at the Atucha Unit 1 nuclear power plant (Atucha-I). This introduces the unique problem of verifying the presence of fuel in either layer without physically moving the fuel assemblies. Given that the facility uses both natural uranium and slightly enriched uranium at 0.85 wt% 235U and has been in operation since 1974, a wide range of burnups and cooling times can exist in any given pool. A gross defect detection tool, the spent fuel neutron counter (SFNC), has been used at the site to verify the presence of fuel up to burnups of 8000 MWd/t. At higher discharge burnups, the existing signal processing software of the tool was found to fail due to nonlinearity of the source term with burnup.},

  doi          = {10.13182/NT14-63},

  journal      = {Nuclear Technology},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 192,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Mar 27 00:00:00 EDT 2017},

  month        = {Mon Mar 27 00:00:00 EDT 2017}

}

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