1. Direct measurement of 235U in spent fuel rods with Gamma-ray mirrors
- Author
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Mónica Fernández-Perea, K.P. Ziock, Roger A. Kisner, Alexander M. Melin, M. J. Pivovaroff, R. M. Hill, Regina Soufli, Marie-Anne Descalle, J. Ruz, Todd A. Decker, Jennifer B. Alameda, B. W. Patton, and Nicolai Brejnholt
- Subjects
Physics ,Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,Fission products ,Nuclear engineering ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Uranium ,Spent nuclear fuel ,Semiconductor detector ,Plutonium ,Thorium fuel cycle ,chemistry ,Instrumentation ,MOX fuel ,Plutonium-239 - Abstract
Direct measurement of plutonium and uranium X-rays and gamma-rays is a highly desirable non-destructive analysis method for the use in reprocessing fuel environments. The high background and intense radiation from spent fuel make direct measurements difficult to implement since the relatively low activity of uranium and plutonium is masked by the high activity from fission products. To overcome this problem, we make use of a grazing incidence optic to selectively reflect K α and K β fluorescence of Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) into a high-purity position-sensitive germanium detector and obtain their relative ratios.
- Published
- 2015