Development of Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry to Quantify the Fissile Content in PWR Spent LEU and MOX Assemblies

Lafleur, Adrienne M; Charlton, William; Menlove, H.O.; Swinhoe, Martyn T

doi:10.13182/nse11-40

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Recent interest in this approach was stimulated by an IAEA request related to spent fuel verification. The main application of SINRD is for use at a spent fuel storage facility for measurements in water, although SINRD could also be used for measurements in different mediums, such as air or sodium and at reprocessing facilities that have spent fuel pools [8].…”

Section: Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of experimental measurements of PWR fresh and spent fuel assemblies using Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry

Lafleur

Menlove

2015

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry (SINRD) is a new NDA technique that was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to improve existing nuclear safeguards measurements for LWR fuel assemblies. The SINRD detector consists of four fission chambers (FCs) wrapped with different absorber filters to isolate different parts of the neutron energy spectrum and one ion chamber (IC) to measure the gross gamma rate. As a result, two different techniques can be utilized using the same SINRD detector unit and hardware. These techniques are the Passive Neutron Multiplication Counter (PNMC) method and the SINRD method. The focus of the work described in this paper is the analysis of experimental measurements of fresh and spent PWR fuel assemblies that were performed at LANL and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), respectively, using the SINRD detector. The purpose of these experiments was to assess the following capabilities of the SINRD detector: 1) reproducibility of measurements to quantify systematic errors, 2) sensitivity to water gap between detector and fuel assembly, 3) sensitivity and penetrability to the removal of fuel rods from the assembly, and 4) use of PNMC/SINRD ratios to quantify neutron multiplication and/or fissile content. The results from these simulations and measurements provides valuable experimental data that directly supports safeguards research and development (R&D) efforts on the viability of passive neutron NDA techniques and detector designs for partial defect verification of spent fuel assemblies.

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Section: Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of experimental measurements of PWR fresh and spent fuel assemblies using Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry

Lafleur

Menlove

2015

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Since no filter is used for the estimation of the fast neutron flux, in that case the exponential term of Formula (e) is not considered. By using this approach, the energy distribution of the incoming flux φ in is estimated by means of Monte Carlo simulations accounting for the angular and spatial distribution of the neutron flux, instead of using leakage probabilities for different energy regions as described in [7]. The total count (C Gd , C Cd , C F ) of each measurement is the product between the count rate (c Gd , c Cd , c F ) and the measurement time (t), while the uncertainty associated to this quantity (σ Gd , σ Cd , σ F ) is estimated as the square root of the total count.…”

Section: Assessment Of the Detectors Total Counts And Associated Uncementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although a plutonium-loaded fission chamber is considered as the ideal detector for SINRD, previous work from [5] mentioned the difficulty to obtain such detector type. Therefore a 235 U fission chamber was considered in this paper as alternative.…”

Section: Selection Criteria For the Filter Thicknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Los Alamos National Laboratory the SINRD technique was investigated for the measurement of spent fuel under water by placing a set of fission chambers on one side of the fuel assembly to measure the spontaneous neutron emission [5][6][7][8][9]. However, this configuration relied on the accurate positioning of the detectors [10] and was more sensitive to the first outer fuel pin rows [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this configuration relied on the accurate positioning of the detectors [10] and was more sensitive to the first outer fuel pin rows [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Neutron absorbers and detector types for spent fuel verification using the self-interrogation neutron resonance densitometry

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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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The use of the BIC set in the characterization of used nuclear fuel assemblies by nondestructive assay

Bolind¹

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Annals of Nuclear Energy

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Development of Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry to Quantify the Fissile Content in PWR Spent LEU and MOX Assemblies

Cited by 10 publications

References 2 publications

Analysis of experimental measurements of PWR fresh and spent fuel assemblies using Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry

Analysis of experimental measurements of PWR fresh and spent fuel assemblies using Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry

Neutron absorbers and detector types for spent fuel verification using the self-interrogation neutron resonance densitometry

The use of the BIC set in the characterization of used nuclear fuel assemblies by nondestructive assay

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