Nondestructive assay of curium-contaminated transuranic waste drums

Lynn A. Foster

doi:10.1117/12.339070

29 January 1999 Nondestructive assay of curium-contaminated transuranic waste drums

Lynn A. Foster

Proceedings Volume 3536, Nuclear Waste Instrumentation Engineering; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.339070
Event: Photonics East (ISAM, VVDC, IEMB), 1998, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

At the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a series of non-destructive assays were performed on five transuranic waste drums containing non-actinide scrap metal that was potentially contaminated with weapons grade plutonium and trace quantities of curium. Typically, waste drums containing metal matrices are assayed for plutonium content using passive neutron coincidence counting techniques. The presence of trace quantities of ²⁴⁴Cm prevents this type of analysis because of the strong coincidence signal created by spontaneous fission of ²⁴⁴Cm. To discrimination between the plutonium and curium materials in the matrix, an active neutron measurement technique was used. A californium shuffler designed for measurement of uranium bearing materials was calibrated for plutonium in the active mode. The waste drums were then assayed for plutonium content in the shuffler using the active-mode calibration, which is relatively insensitive to the ²⁴⁴Cm contamination. The curium contamination levels were estimated from the difference between the active-mode measurement in the shuffler and a passive assay in a neutron coincidence counter. Far field gamma-ray measurements were made to identify additional radioactive contaminants and to corroborate the plutonium measurement results obtained from the active-mode assay. This report describes in detail the measurement process used for characterization of these waste drums. The measurement results and the estimated uncertainty will be presented.

Citation Download Citation

Lynn A. Foster "Nondestructive assay of curium-contaminated transuranic waste drums", Proc. SPIE 3536, Nuclear Waste Instrumentation Engineering, (29 January 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.339070

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KEYWORDS

Plutonium

Curium

Contamination

Gamma radiation

Calibration

Uranium

Nondestructive evaluation

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