Document Type

Grant

Publication Date

2005

First page number:

1

Last page number:

9

Abstract

Monitoring of higher actinides (HA, includes neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium) during the separation of used nuclear fuel has been identified as a critical research area in the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI). The AFCI is a program to develop economic and environmental methods to reduce the impact of waste from commercial nuclear fuel cycles. Recycling of used fuel by chemically separating it into uranium, fission products, and HA would be the first step in this new fuel cycle. This will present challenges in terms of protecting fissile materials, monitoring processes and process equipment for the presence or absence of various constituents, and accounting for quantities of transuranics from beginning to end of fuel processing (MPC&A). Characteristics of HA that may allow for the detection and/or measurement of these materials in batch or continuous processes involve fission, activation, and radioactive decay. Two readily exploited characteristics are gamma-ray emission during radioactive decay and neutron emission during spontaneous fission. Other characteristics that may permit the identification of actinides and isotopes include neutron multiplicity, that is, the measurement of multiple neutrons from single fission events, and absorption of high-energy photons. The UNLV Neutron Multiplicity Detector System, which was developed in a previous UNLV Transmutation Research Project, combined with other detection techniques as well as the capability at the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC) to produce highly intense pulses of gamma rays and neutrons provides an opportunity to investigate this potential. In the project described herein, we will investigate the use of multiple detection technologies to identify and quantify transuranics in processing stages through theoretical studies and experiments at UNLV and in a collaboration with the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC).

Keywords

Actinide elements – Separation; Radioactive wastes — Purification; Reactor fuel reprocessing; Spent reactor fuels

Controlled Subject

Actinide elements--Separation; Radioactive wastes--Purification; Reactor fuel reprocessing

Disciplines

Nuclear

File Format

pdf

File Size

266 KB

Language

English

Rights

COPYRIGHT UNDETERMINED. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/

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