SPENT-FUEL VERIFICATION MEASUREMENTS USING PASSIVE AND ACTIVE RADIATION TECHNIQUES

This paper describes an evolutionary development process that will lead to spent fuel measurements that directly measure fissile reactivity. First, the Fork measurement system has been used to ver@ the burnup of pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent-fuel assemblies at U.S. nuclear utilities. Fork measurements have demonstrated the utility of the passive Fork system to verify reactor records with a single 100-second measurement on each assembly. Second, an Advanced Fork system incorporating collimated gamma-ray spectroscopy has been designed to permit advanced calibration techniques that am independent of reactor burnup nxords and to allow rapid axial scanning of spent fuel assemblies. Third, an Active Fork system incoqmating a neutron source to interrogate spent fuel is proposed to provide the capability to measure fissile reactivity, when compared to measurements on fresh fuel assemblies of the same design. The Advanced and Active Fork systems have wide applicability to spent fuel vetilcation for PWR, boiling water reactor (EN/R), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spent fuel.