PNNL

Abstract

Safeguards inspectors currently visit uranium enrichment plants to verify UF6 cylinder enrichment declarations. Measurements are performed with handheld high-resolution detectors on a limited number of cylinders taken to be representative of the plant’s cylinder inventory. These enrichment assay methods interrogate only a small fraction of the total cylinder volume, and are time-consuming and expensive to execute. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing an automated UF6 cylinder verification station concept based on the combined collection of traditional enrichment-meter data (186 keV photons from 235U) and non-traditional, neutron-induced, high-energy gamma-ray signatures (3-8 MeV) with an array of collimated, medium-resolution scintillators. Previous work at PNNL (2010) demonstrated proof-of-principle that this hybrid method yields accurate, full-volume assay of the cylinder enrichment, reduces systematic errors when compared to several other enrichment assay methods, and provides simplified instrumentation and algorithms suitable for long-term, unattended operations. This system aims to increase the number of inspected cylinders at higher accuracy and with lower cost than when compared to inspectors with hand-held instruments. Several measurement campaigns of 30B cylinder populations and a refined MCNP model will be reported. The MCNP model consists of per-gram basis vectors for the different uranium isotopes and several fill geometries, enabling fast generation of any UF6 enrichment level and multiple configurations. The refined model was used to optimize collimator design and detector configuration for the hybrid method. In addition, a new field prototype based on model results was utilized in a set of field measurements.