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Experimental method for verification of calculated Cs-137 content in nuclear fuel assemblies

Authors :
Martin Bengtsson
Anders Sjöland
Ulrika Bäckström
Fredrik Johansson
Peter Jansson
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
Uppsala universitet, Tillämpad kärnfysik, 2022.

Abstract

A method to determine the absolute activity of 137Cs in irradiated nuclear fuel is presented. Using a well-known point-like calibration source in combination with measurements of the gamma-ray intensity from the nuclear fuel and Monte Carlo calculations based on the nominal measurement geometry, the activity content can be determined without prior knowledge of the intrinsic detection efficiency of the gamma-ray detector. The presented method is tested using measurements of the 137Cs intensity from spent nuclear fuel of the pressurized water type at the central interim storage in Sweden. Using an assumption of homogeneous distribution of 137Cs throughout the fuel, we demonstrate a linear relationship between measured activity and the activity calculated by a state-of-the-art simulation code. For future studies, we suggest some factors that potentially can decrease the uncertainty in the correlation between measured and calculated activity.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....53f255da9ad89ed64f60b4154f1b7aad