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Technical Cross-cutting Issues for the Next Genera
S. J. Tobin,S. J. Thompson,D. L. Chichester +2 more
- Vol. 40, Iss: 3
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In this paper, the role of neutron absorbers with emphasis on how these absorbers vary in spent fuel (SF) as a function of initial enrichment, burnup (BU) and cooling time (CT).Abstract:
Ever since there has been spent fuel (SF), researchers have made nondestructive assay (NDA) measurements of that fuel to learn about its content. In general these measurements have focused on the simplest signatures (passive photon and total neutron emission) and the analysis has often focused on diversion detection and on determining properties such as burnup (BU) and cooling time (CT). Because of shortcomings in current analysis methods, inspectorates and policy makers are interested in improving the state-of-the-art in SF NDA. For this reason the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI), targeted the determination of elemental Pu mass in SF as a technical goal. As part of this research effort, 14 nondestructive assay techniques were studied . This wide range of techniques was selected to allow flexibility for the various needs of the safeguards inspectorates and to prepare for the likely integration of one or more techniques having complementary features. In the course of researching this broad range of NDA techniques, several cross-cutting issues were. This paper will describe some common issues and insights. In particular we will describe the following: (1) the role of neutron absorbers with emphasis on how these absorbers vary in SFmore » as a function of initial enrichment, BU and CT; (2) the need to partition the measured signal among different isotopic sources; and (3) the importance of the “first generation” concept which indicates the spatial location from which the signal originates as well as the isotopic origins.« lessread more
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Book ChapterDOI
International Safeguards Inspections
TL;DR: In this paper, the concepts of safeguards inspections and what a generic safeguards inspection regime at a generic example light-water reactor might look like are described. But they do not discuss the means of achieving these goals.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Decay heat uncertainty for BWR used fuel due to modeling and nuclear data uncertainties
Germina Ilas,Henrik Liljenfeldt +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss uncertainties in calculated decay heat due to uncertainties in assembly modeling parameters as well as in nuclear data, and quantify the effect of uncertainties in the nuclear data and selected manufacturing and operation parameters for a typical BWR fuel assembly.
Journal ArticleDOI
PWR and BWR spent fuel assembly gamma spectra measurements
Stefano Vaccaro,Stephen J. Tobin,Andrea Favalli,Brandon R Grogan,Peter Jansson,Henrik Liljenfeldt,Vladimir Mozin,Jianwei Hu,Peter Schwalbach,Anders Sjöland,Holly R. Trellue,Duc Vo +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focused on spectrally resolved gamma-ray measurements performed on a diverse set of 50 spent fuel assemblies [25 pressurized water reactor (PWR) assemblies and 25 boiling water Reactor (BWR), and these same 50 assemblies will be measured with neutron-based NDA instruments and a full-length calorimeter.
Journal ArticleDOI
Determination of spent nuclear fuel parameters using modelled signatures from non-destructive assay and Random Forest regression
TL;DR: In this paper, the verification of fuel parameters is a central undertaking for nuclear inspectors aiming at verifying the completeness and correctness of operator declarations, and the verification is done by verifying the correctness of the operator declarations.
ReportDOI
Nondestructive Assay Options for Spent Fuel Encapsulation
Stephen J. Tobin,Peter Jansson +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the role that nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques and systems of NDA techniques may have in the context of an encapsulation and deep geological repository.
Journal ArticleDOI
Measuring spent fuel assembly multiplication in borated water with a passive neutron albedo reactivity instrument
Stephen J. Tobin,Pauli Peura,Camille Bélanger-Champagne,Mikael Moring,Peter Dendooven,Tapani Honkamaa +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, 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.