Download or read book The Use of Curium Neutrons to Verify Plutonium in Spent Fuel and Reprocessing Wastes written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Applications of Curium Measurements for Safeguarding at Large scale Reprocessing Plants written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Safeguarding the plutonium passing through a large-scale reprocessing plant (such as one with 800 t of uranium per year) involves nondestructive assay measurements for plutonium at key points. The gamma-ray and neutron signals from the plutonium are generally hidden by the much larger backgrounds from fission products and actinides, so indirect measurements are routinely used. The intense neutron emission rate from spent fuel is from curium. In a spent fuel assembly at the head-end of a plant, the curium neutrons are used to deduce the amount of plutonium present. Coincidence and multiplicity counting are alternative ways to measure neutrons from spent fuel; they have advantages over total neutron counting in certain conditions and offer new opportunities for examining assemblies. New uses for measurements of curium's neutrons are proposed to safeguard waste streams. From a year's work at a large-scale plant, 4 to 7 kg of plutonium can remain in leached hulls and 4 to 22 kg of plutonium can remain in the vitrified high-level liquid waste. While the plutonium in these wastes has the safeguards advantage of being dilute, it is important to verify (a) that the many kilograms involved are in fact present and (b) that the declared masses are not higher than the actual amounts so that more concentrated plutonium cannot pass through the plant by masquerading as waste. Curium measurements on spent fuel assemblies, the accountability tank, and leached hulls would form a safeguards system around all the inputs and outputs of a plant's head-end where the plutonium is always intimately mixed with the curium. A neutron measurement of the vitrified waste would help identify the presence of a diversion path upstream because essentially all of the curium measured in the spent fuel assemblies should also be found in the vitrified waste (on a batch basis). 7 refs., 4 figs.
Download or read book Safety Issues Associated with Plutonium Involvement in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle written by Theodore A. Parish and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-02-28 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "VOLGA" conferences, hosted in odd-numbered years by the Department of Theoretical and Experimental Reactor Physics of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI), are some of the most prestigious technical meetings held in Russia. Traditionally, these conferences present the opportunity for reactor physicists from around the world to gather at MEPhI's holiday camp on the banks of the Volga river (near Tver) to exchange ideas and explore innovative concepts related to nuclear power development. In 1997, NATO became involved in the "VOLGA" meetings for the first time by co-sponsoring "VOLGA97" as an advanced research workshop. This workshop broke with tradition a bit in that the venue was moved from MEPhI's holiday camp to a location nearer Moscow. The workshop program was effectively organized in order to cover a broad range of topics relating to the theme of the meeting. Generally, the papers concerned safety related questions associated with utilizing both weapons-grade and reactor-grade plutonium in the nuclear fuel cycle, including facility requirements, licensing issues, proliferation risks, and a variety of advanced concepts for alternative fuel cycles. The program contained a total of ninety-nine papers presented in five days of sessions.
Download or read book Energy Research Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nuclear Safeguards Security and Nonproliferation written by James Doyle and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-04-08 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an increase of global security concerns over potential terrorist acts, the threat of WMDs, and increasing political issues with nations seeking nuclear capability, the need to track, detect, and safeguard nuclear material globally has never been greater. Nuclear Safeguards, Security and Nonproliferation is a comprehensive reference that covers cutting-edge technologies used to trace, track, and safeguard nuclear material. It is a contributed volume with sections contributed by scientists from leading institutions such as Los Alamos National Labs, Sandia National Labs, Pacific Northwest Nuclear Labs, and Texas A&M University, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The book is divided into 3 sections and includes 30 chapters on such topics as - the security of nuclear facilities and material, the illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, improvised nuclear devices, how to prevent nuclear terrorism. International case studies of security at nuclear facilities and illegal nuclear trade activities provide specific examples of the complex issues surrounding the technology and policy for nuclear material protection, control and accountability. Specific cases include analysis of the timely issues in the nuclear programs of countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Kazakstan among others. Nuclear Security is a must-have volume for the dozens of private and public organizations involved in driving Homeland Security, domestic, and international policy issues relating to nuclear material security, non-proliferation, and nuclear transparency. - Written by some of the world's top scientists including members of the Nuclear Division of Los Alamos National Labs (U.S.) - A timely discussion of current international nuclear security issues includes case studies on Iraq, Iran and North Korea - Book takes a global perspective on nuclear security and non-proliferation detailing the little-known real-world technologies used to secure, detect and track nuclear material
Download or read book An Integrated Approach for Determining Plutonium Mass in Spent Fuel Assemblies with Nondestructive Assay written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are a variety of reasons for quantifying plutonium (Pu) in spent fuel. Below, five motivations are listed: (1) To verify the Pu content of spent fuel without depending on unverified information from the facility, as requested by the IAEA ('independent verification'). New spent fuel measurement techniques have the potential to allow the IAEA to recover continuity of knowledge and to better detect diversion. (2) To assure regulators that all of the nuclear material of interest leaving a nuclear facility actually arrives at another nuclear facility ('shipper/receiver'). Given the large stockpile of nuclear fuel at reactor sites around the world, it is clear that in the coming decades, spent fuel will need to be moved to either reprocessing facilities or storage sites. Safeguarding this transportation is of significant interest. (3) To quantify the Pu in spent fuel that is not considered 'self-protecting.' Fuel is considered self-protecting by some regulatory bodies when the dose that the fuel emits is above a given level. If the fuel is not self-protecting, then the Pu content of the fuel needs to be determined and the Pu mass recorded in the facility's accounting system. This subject area is of particular interest to facilities that have research-reactor spent fuel or old light-water reactor (LWR) fuel. It is also of interest to regulators considering changing the level at which fuel is considered self-protecting. (4) To determine the input accountability value at an electrochemical processing facility. It is not expected that an electrochemical reprocessing facility will have an input accountability tank, as is typical in an aqueous reprocessing facility. As such, one possible means of determining the input accountability value is to measure the Pu content in the spent fuel that arrives at the facility. (5) To fully understand the composition of the fuel in order to efficiently and safely pack spent fuel into a long-term repository. The NDA of spent fuel can be part of a system that cost-effectively meets the burnup credit needs of a repository. Behind each of these reasons is a regulatory structure with MC & A requirements. In the case of the IAEA, the accountable quantity is elemental plutonium. The material in spent fuel (fissile isotopes, fission products, etc.) emits signatures that provide information about the content and history of the fuel. A variety of nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques are available to quantify these signatures. The effort presented in this paper is investigation of the capabilities of 12 NDA techniques. For these 12, none is conceptually capable of independently determining the Pu content in a spent fuel assembly while at the same time being able to detect the diversion of a significant quantity of rods. For this reason the authors are investigating the capability of 12 NDA techniques with the end goal of integrating a few techniques together into a system that is capable of measuring Pu mass in an assembly. The work described here is the beginning of what is anticipated to be a five year effort: (1) two years of modeling to select the best technologies, (2) one year fabricating instruments and (3) two years measuring spent fuel. This paper describes the first two years of this work. In order to cost effectively and robustly model the performance of the 12 NDA techniques, an 'assembly library' was created. The library contains the following: (a) A diverse range of PWR spent fuel assemblies (burnup, enrichment, cooling time) similar to that which exists in spent pools today and in the future. (b) Diversion scenarios that capture a range of possible rod removal options. (c) The spatial and isotopic detail needed to accurately quantify the capability of all the NDA techniques so as to enable integration. It is our intention to make this library available to other researchers in the field for inter-comparison purposes. The performance of each instrument will be quantified for the full assembly library for measurements in three different media: air, water and borated water. The 12 NDA techniques being researched are the following: Delayed Gamma, Delayed Neutrons, Differential Die-Away, Lead Slowing Down Spectrometer, Neutron Multiplicity, Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence, Passive Prompt Gamma, Passive Neutron Albedo Reactivity, Self-integration Neutron Resonance Densitometry, Total Neutron (Gross Neutron), X-Ray Fluorescence, 252Cf Interrogation with Prompt Neutron Detection.
Download or read book The Toxicity of Plutonium Americium and Curium written by J. C. Nenot and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Toxicity of Plutonium, Americium and Curium provides a biological basis for an assessment of the radiological health problems resulting from human exposure to americium, curium, and plutonium. This book discusses the method of injection of the chelating agent DTPA for removing soluble forms of americium, curium, and plutonium. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the biological effects in man that are attributed to exposure to actinides. This text then examines the uses of americium and curium in transmission scanning studies in tissues, in smoke detectors, and in neutron sources. Other chapters consider the metabolism or effects of plutonium in humans that can be employed to predict the potential consequences of human exposure. This book discusses as well routes of entry of radioactive materials into the body by inhalation, by ingestion, through cuts, or by absorption through the intact skin. The final chapter deals with the assessment of the radiological health problems resulting from the use of mixed oxide fuels of uranium and plutonium in light water reactors. This book is a valuable resource for scientists.
Download or read book Physics of Plutonium Recycling Issues and perspectives written by NEA Nuclear Science Committee. Working Party on Physics of Plutonium Recycling and published by Nuclear and Dev. This book was released on 1995 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On cover & title page: OECD Documents
Download or read book Proliferation proof Uranium Plutonium and Thorium Uranium Fuel Cycles Safeguards and Non Proliferation written by Kessler, Guenter and published by KIT Scientific Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thermal and neutron physics analysis show that above certain concentrations of the isotope Pu-238 hypothetical nuclear explosive devices, made of reactor-grade plutonium, are technically not feasible. Future proliferation-proof fuel cycles are proposed which make use of methods of actinide tansmutation.Reactors operating in the thorium/uranium fuel cyce are loaded with
Download or read book Passive Nondestructive Assay of Nuclear Materials written by Doug Reilly and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Physics of Plutonium Recycling Plutonium recycling in fast reactors written by NEA Nuclear Science Committee. Working Party on Physics of Plutonium Recycling and published by Nuclear and Dev. This book was released on 1995 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On cover & title page: OECD Documents
Download or read book Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis written by Michael F. L'Annunziata and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 810 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis is written by experts in the measurement of radioactivity. The book describes the broad scope of analytical methods available and instructs the reader on how to select the proper technique. It is intended as a practical manual for research which requires the accurate measurement of radioactivity at all levels, from the low levels encountered in the environment to the high levels measured in radioisotope research. This book contains sample preparation procedures, recommendations on steps to follow, necessary calculations, computer controlled analysis, and high sample throughput techniques. Each chapter includes practical techniques for application to nuclear safety, nuclear safeguards, environmental analysis, weapons disarmament, and assays required for research in biomedicine and agriculture. The fundamentals of radioactivity properties, radionuclide decay, and methods of detection are included to provide the basis for a thorough understanding of the analytical procedures described in the book. Therefore, the Handbook can also be used as a teaching text. - Includes sample preparation techniques for matrices such as soil, air, plant, water, animal tissue, and surface swipes - Provides procedures and guidelines for the analysis of commonly encountered na
Download or read book Nuclear Engineering written by Malcolm Joyce and published by Butterworth-Heinemann. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear Engineering: A Conceptual Introduction to Nuclear Power provides coverage of the introductory, salient principles of nuclear engineering in a comprehensive manner for those entering the profession at the end of their degree. The nuclear power industry is undergoing a renaissance because of the desire for low-carbon baseload electricity, the growing population, and environmental concerns about shale gas, so this book is a welcomed addition to the science. In addition, users will find a great deal of information on the change in the industry, along with other topical areas of interest that are uniquely covered. Intended for undergraduate students or early postgraduate students studying nuclear engineering, this new text will also be appealing to scientifically-literate non-experts wishing to be better informed about the 'nuclear option'. - Presents a succinct and clear explanation of the key facts and concepts on how nuclear engineering power systems function and how their related fuel supply cycles operate - Provides full coverage of the nuclear fuel cycle, including its scientific and historical basis - Describes a comprehensive range of relevant reactor designs, from those that are defunct, current, and in plan/construction for the future, including SMRs and GenIV - Summarizes all major accidents and their impact on the industry and society
Download or read book Nuclear Wastes written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1996-02-23 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow. The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel. The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.
Download or read book Physics of Plutonium Recycling Plutonium recycling in fast reactors written by OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. Working Party on Physics of Plutonium Recycling and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Improving the Scientific Basis for Managing DOE s Excess Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-06-09 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The production of nuclear materials for the national defense was an intense, nationwide effort that began with the Manhattan Project and continued throughout the Cold War. Now many of these product materials, by-products, and precursors, such as irradiated nuclear fuels and targets, have been declared as excess by the Department of Energy (DOE). Most of this excess inventory has been, or will be, turned over to DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM), which is responsible for cleaning up the former production sites. Recognizing the scientific and technical challenges facing EM, Congress in 1995 established the EM Science Program (EMSP) to develop and fund directed, long-term research that could substantially enhance the knowledge base available for new cleanup technologies and decision making. The EMSP has previously asked the National Academies' National Research Council for advice for developing research agendas in subsurface contamination, facility deactivation and decommissioning, high-level waste, and mixed and transuranic waste. For this study the committee was tasked to provide recommendations for a research agenda to improve the scientific basis for DOE's management of its high-cost, high-volume, or high-risk excess nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuels. To address its task, the committee focused its attention on DOE's excess plutonium-239, spent nuclear fuels, cesium-137 and strontium-90 capsules, depleted uranium, and higher actinide isotopes.
Download or read book Strategy and Methodology for Radioactive Waste Characterization written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by IAEA. This book was released on 2007 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade significant progress has been achieved in the development of waste characterization and control procedures and equipment as a direct response to ever-increasing requirements for quality and reliability of information on waste characteristics. Failure in control procedures at any step can have important, adverse consequences and may result in producing waste packages which are not compliant with the waste acceptance criteria for disposal, thereby adversely impacting the repository. The information and guidance included in this publication corresponds to recent achievements and reflects the optimum approaches, thereby reducing the potential for error and enhancing the quality of the end product. -- Publisher's description.
