A Quantitative Unattended System To Assay Uranium In Waste

Nuclear material under IAEA Safeguards is required to be verified before being transferred to difficult to access locations such as geologic repositories. The need for an assay system was identified for uranium bearing material that was to be transferred to a waste repository. The volume of material was such that the transfers would be accomplished via large transport containers over multiple years. This required the development of a large unattended system to assay each truckload prior to unloading into the repository. This report will detail the development of a neutron based portal monitor utilizing Helium-3 tubes, the calibration of the portal, and results of measurements on actual material.