Alpha particle spectroscopy — A useful tool for the investigation of spent nuclear fuel from high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Abstract

For more than a decade, alpha particle spectrometry of spent nuclear fuel has been used at the Kernforschungsanlage Jülich (KFA) in the field of research for the German high temperature reactor (HTR). Techniques used for the preparation of samples for alpha spectrometry have included deposition from aqueous solutions of spent fuel, annealing of fuel particles in an oven and the evaporation of fuel material by a laser beam. The resulting sources are very thin but of low activity and the alpha spectrometry data obtained from them must be evaluated with sophisticated computer codes to achieve the required accuracy. Measurements have been made on high and low enriched uranium fuel and on a variety of parameters relevant to the fuel cycle. In this paper the source preparation and data evaluation techniques will be discussed together with the results obtained to data, i.e. production of alpha active actinide isotopes, correlations between actinide isotopes and fission products, build up and transmutation of actinides during burn-up of HTR fuel, diffusion coefficients of actinides for fuel particle kernels and coating materials. All these KFA results have helped to establish the basis for the design, licensing and operation of HTR power plants, including reprocessing and waste management.