NWIS MEASUREMENTS FOR URANIUM METAL ANNULAR CASTINGS
Abstract
This report describes measurements performed with annular uranium metal castings of different enrichments to investigate the use of {sup 252}Cf-source-driven noise analysis measurements as a means to quantify the amount of special nuclear material (SNM) in the casting. This work in FY 97 was sponsored by the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant and the DOE Office of Technology Development Programs. Previous measurements and calculational studies have shown that many of the signatures obtained from the source-driven measurement are very sensitive to fissile mass. Measurements were performed to assess the applicability of this method to standard annular uranium metal castings at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant under verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) using the Nuclear Weapons Identification System (NWIS) processor. Before the measurements with different enrichments, a limited study of source-detector-casting moderator configurations was performed to enhance the correlated information. These configurations consisted of a casting with no reflector and with various thicknesses of polyethylene reflectors up to 10.16 cm in 2.54 cm steps. The polyethylene moderator thickness of 7.62 cm was used for measurements with castings of different enrichments reported here. The sensitivity of the measured parameters to fissile mass was investigated using four castings each with amore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant (Y-12), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 2739
- Report Number(s):
- Y/LB-15,971
TRN: US0101300
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 13 Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS; ENRICHED URANIUM; Y-12 PLANT; CASTINGS; RADIOISOTOPE SCANNERS; PERFORMANCE TESTING; NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
Citation Formats
MATTINGLY, J K, VALENTINE, T E, and MIHALCZO, J T. NWIS MEASUREMENTS FOR URANIUM METAL ANNULAR CASTINGS. United States: N. p., 1998.
Web. doi:10.2172/2739.
MATTINGLY, J K, VALENTINE, T E, & MIHALCZO, J T. NWIS MEASUREMENTS FOR URANIUM METAL ANNULAR CASTINGS. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/2739
MATTINGLY, J K, VALENTINE, T E, and MIHALCZO, J T. 1998.
"NWIS MEASUREMENTS FOR URANIUM METAL ANNULAR CASTINGS". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/2739. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/2739.
@article{osti_2739,
title = {NWIS MEASUREMENTS FOR URANIUM METAL ANNULAR CASTINGS},
author = {MATTINGLY, J K and VALENTINE, T E and MIHALCZO, J T},
abstractNote = {This report describes measurements performed with annular uranium metal castings of different enrichments to investigate the use of {sup 252}Cf-source-driven noise analysis measurements as a means to quantify the amount of special nuclear material (SNM) in the casting. This work in FY 97 was sponsored by the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant and the DOE Office of Technology Development Programs. Previous measurements and calculational studies have shown that many of the signatures obtained from the source-driven measurement are very sensitive to fissile mass. Measurements were performed to assess the applicability of this method to standard annular uranium metal castings at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant under verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) using the Nuclear Weapons Identification System (NWIS) processor. Before the measurements with different enrichments, a limited study of source-detector-casting moderator configurations was performed to enhance the correlated information. These configurations consisted of a casting with no reflector and with various thicknesses of polyethylene reflectors up to 10.16 cm in 2.54 cm steps. The polyethylene moderator thickness of 7.62 cm was used for measurements with castings of different enrichments reported here. The sensitivity of the measured parameters to fissile mass was investigated using four castings each with a different enrichment. The high sensitivity of this measurement method to fissile mass and to other material and configurations provides some advantages over existing safeguards methods.},
doi = {10.2172/2739},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2739},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 13 00:00:00 EST 1998},
month = {Fri Mar 13 00:00:00 EST 1998}
}