The purpose of the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI)–Spent Fuel (SF) project is to strengthen the technical toolkit of safeguards inspectors and/or other interested parties. The NGSI–SF team is working to achieve the following technical goals more easily and efficiently than in the past using nondestructive assay measurements of spent fuel assemblies: (1) verify the initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of facility declaration; (2) detect the diversion or replacement of pins; (3) estimate the plutonium mass [which is also a function of the variables in (1)]; (4) estimate the decay heat; and (5) determine the reactivity of spent fuel assemblies. Since August 2013, a set of measurement campaigns has been conducted at the Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab), in collaboration with Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB). One purpose of the measurement campaigns was to acquire passive gamma spectra with high-purity germanium and lanthanum bromide scintillation detectors from Pressurized Water Reactor and Boiling Water Reactor spent fuel assemblies. The absolute 137Cs count rate and the 154Eu/137Cs, 134Cs/137Cs, 106Ru/137Cs, and 144Ce/137Cs isotopic ratios were extracted; these values were used to construct corresponding model functions (which describe each measured quantity’s behavior over various combinations of burnup, cooling time, and initial enrichment) and then were used to determine those same quantities in each measured spent fuel assembly. The results obtained in comparison with the operator declared values, as well as the methodology developed, are discussed in detail in the paper.

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Determining initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of pressurized-water reactor spent fuel assemblies by analyzing passive gamma spectra measured at the Clab interim-fuel storage facility in Sweden

A project to research the application of nondestructive assay (NDA) to spent fuel assemblies is underway. The research team comprises the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), embodied by the European Commission, DG Energy, Directorate EURATOM Safeguards; the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB); two universities; and several United States national laboratories. The Next Generation of Safeguards Initiative–Spent Fuel project team is working to achieve the following technical goals more easily and efficiently than in the past using nondestructive assay measurements of spent fuel assemblies: (1) verify the initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of facility declaration; (2) detect the diversion or replacement of pins, (3) estimate the plutonium mass, (4) estimate the decay heat, and (5) determine the reactivity of spent fuel assemblies. This study focuses on spectrally resolved gamma-ray measurements performed on a diverse set of 50 assemblies [25 pressurized water reactor (PWR) assemblies and 25 boiling water reactor (BWR) assemblies]; these same 50 assemblies will be measured with neutron-based NDA instruments and a full-length calorimeter. Given that encapsulation/repository and dry storage safeguards are the primarily intended applications, the analysis focused on the dominant gamma-ray lines of 137 Cs, 154 Eu, and 134 Cs because these isotopes will be the primary gamma-ray emitters during the time frames of interest to these applications. This study addresses the impact on the measured passive gamma-ray signals due to the following factors: burnup, initial enrichment, cooling time, assembly type (eight different PWR and six different BWR fuel designs), presence of gadolinium rods, and anomalies in operating history. To compare the measured results with theory, a limited number of ORIGEN-ARP simulations were performed.

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PWR and BWR spent fuel assembly gamma spectra measurements

The Design of an Imager to Safeguard Spent Fuel Using Passive Fast Neutron Emission Tomography

The performance of a passive neutron albedo reactivity (PNAR) instrument to measure neutron multiplication of spent nuclear fuel in borated water is investigated as part of an integrated non-destructive assay safeguards system. To measure the PNAR Ratio, which is proportional to the neutron multiplication, the total neutron count rate is measured in high- and low-multiplying environments by the PNAR instrument. The integrated system also contains a load cell and a passive gamma emission tomograph, and as such meets all the recommendations of the IAEA’s recent ASTOR Experts Group report. A virtual spent fuel library for VVER-440 fuel was used in conjunction with MCNP simulations of the PNAR instrument to estimate the measurement uncertainties from (1) variation in the water boron content, (2) assembly positioning in the detector and (3) counting statistics. The estimated aggregate measurement uncertainty on the PNAR Ratio measurement is 0.008, to put this uncertainty in context, the difference in the PNAR Ratio between a fully irradiated assembly and this same assembly when fissile isotopes only absorb neutrons, but do not emit neutrons, is 0.106, a 13-sigma effect. The 1-sigma variation of 0.008 in the PNAR Ratio is estimated to correspond to a 3.2 GWd/tU change in assembly burnup.

/pdf/measuring-spent-fuel-assembly-multiplication-in-borated-3zmutjh2r8.pdf

Measuring spent fuel assembly multiplication in borated water with a passive neutron albedo reactivity instrument

Passive Neutron Albedo Reactivity in the Finnish encapsulation context

The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), two universities and several U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories have joined in a collaborative research effort to determine the capability of non-destructive assay (NDA) techniques to meet the combined needs of the safeguards community and the Swedish encapsulation and repository facilities operator SKB. These needs include partial defect detection, heat quantification, assembly identification (initial enrichment, burnup and cooling time), and Pu mass and reactivity determination. The experimental component of this research effort involves the measurement of 50 assemblies at the Central Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab) facility in Sweden, 25 of which were irradiated in Pressurized Water Reactors and 25 in Boiling Water Reactors. The experimental signatures being measured for all assemblies include spectral resolved gammas (HPGe and LaBr3), time correlated neutrons (Differential Die-away Self Interrogation), time-varying and continuous active neutron interrogation (Differential Die-away and an approximation of Californium Interrogation Prompt Neutron), total neutron and total gamma fluxes (Fork Detector), total heat (assembly length calorimeter) and possibly the Cerenkov light emission (Digital Cerenkov Viewing Device). This paper fits into the IAEA’s Department of Safeguards Long-Term R&D Plan in the context of developing “more sensitive and less intrusive alternatives to existing NDA instruments to perform partial defect test on spent fuel assembly prior to transfer to difficult to access storage,” as well as potentially supporting pyrochemical processing. The work describes the specific measured signatures, the uniqueness of the information contained in these signatures and why a data mining approach is being used to combine the various signatures to optimally satisfy the various needs of the collaboration. This paper will address efficient and effective verification strategies particularly in the context of encapsulation and repository facilities.

D. Blair

Papers

Experimental and Analytical Plans for the Non-Destructive Assay System of the Swedish Encapsulation and Repository Facilities