Determination of Uranium Enrichment Using a Plastic Scintillator

Abstract

Interest in analyzing the enrichment of uranium waste in drums, which are generated by a nuclear fuel manufacturer, has recently been growing in South Korea. However, high-purity germanium (HPGe) and thallium-doped sodium iodide [NaI(Tl)] that are used to measure uranium enrichment require much time to measure drum size samples because large-area detectors cannot be manufactured due to the limitation of single-crystal growing technologies and the cost. To overcome these limitations, a uranium enrichment analysis device using plastic scintillators is intended to be developed. A screening device using large-area plastic scintillator which is similar to radiation portal monitor is considered for an intermediate- or a low-level uranium waste drum. The capability of plastic scintillators for this application was studied on a small scale by measuring different enrichments of uranium samples using a 2-in plastic scintillator, a 2-in NaI(Tl) scintillator, and an HPGe detector. The results show that the plastic scintillator was able to distinguish between the enrichments of the uranium samples although the efficiency of the plastic scintillator was low. It is expected that this result could be applied to the enrichment analysis of drums containing uranium wastes using large area plastic scintillators in further studies.