Year
2024
Abstract
Purpose:During normal special nuclear material (SNM) processing operations, significant quantities of SNM can accumulate in filters, pumps, pipes, ducts, and other equipment. It is important to identify the location and quantity of this holdup for material accountability, criticality safety, waste management, and radiation safety. Current non-destructive analysis (NDA) techniques for assay of holdup are expensive, time-consuming, and have high uncertainty. The goal of this ongoing project is to facilitate deployment of new NDA technologies for SNM holdup measurements. This will reduce the cost and downtime required to complete Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) measurements at production sites while improving accuracy. It will also streamline characterization of legacy SNM processing equipment and gloveboxes awaiting a disposition path. Methods:A review of existing NDA technologies and methods currently deployed at NNSA/DOE facilities was performed with the consultation of experts across multiple sites. A description of equipment currently in use as well as new technologies that could potentially be of use for quantifying hold-up was developed. Potential research options were evaluated to determine the highest impact direction for the following years of this project. Pain points and opportunities for improvement were identified through discussions with groups within the DOE and in the private sector who are developing advanced NDA technologies. Results:The lack of well-characterized benchmark experiments was identified as the most critical limitation to development and validation of new NDA technologies. Without reliable methods to validate new designs and techniques, SNM processing facilities cannot have sufficient confidence to replace existing NDA tools. Therefore design, fabrication, and execution of a series of SNM holdup NDA benchmark experiments was selected as the research focus for the following years of this project. These experiments will be designed to mimic realistic hold-up scenarios and will have well-defined ground truth and very low uncertainties. They will be made available to researchers in the DOE complex and in the private sector for testing and validation of new NDA technologies. High fidelity radiation transport models of the experiments will also be created to facilitate rapid prototyping.Implications:A publicly available set of benchmark experiments focused on NDA of SNM holdup will accelerate development and adoption of new NDA technologies. They will validate the accuracy of new methods, enabling facilities to adopt them with confidence. Additionally, high fidelity radiation transport models of the benchmark experiments will allow researchers to rapidly test new algorithms and designs in computer simulations rather than via much slower and more expensive physical prototyping.Prepared by LLNL under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 |