SPENT FUEL AND RESIDUE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION AT THE SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR FUEL REPROCESSING FACILITY

The Sellafield reprocessing plant receives and reprocesses several thousand tonnes of spent light water reactor (LWR), advanced gas cooled reactor (AGR) and natural uranium magnesium alloy clad (Magnox) fuels each year. The safety and cost effectiveness of these operations has been supported by the development and installation, at key points in the process, of a range of special purpose radiometric instrumentation. Systems in routine operational use verify the cooling time, burn-up and initial and final U-235 equivalent enrichment of fuel assemblies in the storage and handling ponds. Other systems determine the radionuclide inventories of fuel residues in intermediate level waste arising from plant operations. The measurement techniques employed include high resolution gamma spectrometry, passive neutron counting and neutron interrogation by the use of a Cf-252 source and deuterium-tritium (D-T) pulsed neutron generators. Details of the instruments including mechanical installation arrangements and measurement data are presented in the paper along with a discussion of possible future uses of similar instruments for burn-up credit associated with fuel and residue storage, transportation and disposal.