Determining plutonium mass in spent fuel using Cf-252 interrogation with prompt neutron detection
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
{sup 252}Cf Interrogation with Prompt Neutron (CIPN) detection is proposed as one of 14 NDA techniques to determine Pu mass in spent fuel assemblies (FAs). CIPN is a low-cost and portable instrument, and it looks like a modified fork detector combined with an active interrogation source. Fission chamber (FC) is chosen as neutron detector because of its insensitivity to {gamma} radiation. The CIPN assay is comprised of two measurements, a background count and an active count, without and with the {sup 252}Cf source next to the fuel respectively. The net signal above background is primarily due to the multiplication of Cf source neutrons caused by the fissile content. The capability of CIPN to detect diversion and to determine fissile content was quantified using MCNPX simulations. New schemes were proposed (such as burnup and cooling time correction, etc.) and the results show that the fissile content of a target spent fuel assembly can be determined using CIPN signal.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1017476
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-10-03814; LA-UR-10-3814; TRN: US1103272
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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