The specific ( $\alpha$,n) production rate for ²³⁴U in UF₆

Journal Article · Thu Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2018.11.067· OSTI ID:1484670

Croft, Stephen ^[1]; Favalli, Andrea ^[2]; Fugate, Glenn A. ^[1]; Gauld, Ian ^[1]; McElroy, Robert D. ^[1]; Simone, Angela ^[3]; Swinhoe, Martyn T. ^[2]; Venkataraman, Ramkumar ^[1]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Natural, depleted, and low enriched uranium hexafluoride is manufactured and transported on an industrial scale to support commercial nuclear power plant operation. One-way material production and flow is verified by nuclear safeguards inspectorates is by neutron counting. The dominant neutron source term is ( $\alpha$,n) production due to ²³⁴U which gets enriched/depleted along with ²³⁵U. We describe recent efforts to accurately determine the ( $\alpha$,n)/s/g of ²³⁴U in UF₆. This piece of nuclear data is of direct value to the nuclear safeguards community in the science-based verification and assay of bulk uranium hexafluoride. It also provides a benchmark on codes that calculate yield curves for various compounds from cross section data, and hence, provides a scale or normalization constraint on evaluated basic cross section data. Finally, in turn, evaluated basic data allows the yield from other materials to be calculated; for instance, moist uranyl fluoride, which is of interest in holdup measurements.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1484670
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1636239
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-18-29309
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 954; ISSN 0168-9002
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
uranium hexafluoride
alpha-neutron reaction
nuclear safeguards