Gamma spectrometric characterization of short cooling time nuclear spent fuels using hemispheric CdZnTe detectors

Abstract

After years of cooling, nuclear spent fuel gamma emissions are mainly due to caesium isotopes which are emitters at 605, 662 and 796–801 keV. Extensive work has been done on such fuels using various CdTe or CdZnTe probes. When fuels have to be measured after short cooling time (during NPP outage) the spectrum is much more complex due to the important contributions of niobium and zirconium in the 700 keV range. For the first time in a nuclear power plant, four spent fuels of the Kozloduy VVER reactor no 4 were measured during outage, 37 days after shutdown of the reactor. In such conditions, good resolution is of particular interest, so a 20 mm 3 hemispheric crystal was used with a resolution better than 7 keV at 662 keV. This paper presents the experimental device and analyzes the results which show that CdZnTe commercially available detectors enabled us to perform a semi-quantitative determination of the burn-up after a short cooling time. In addition, it is discussed how a burn-up evolution code (CESAR) coupled to a gamma transport code (MCNP) allows us to predict and interpret the experimental data from CdZnTe detectors. Particularly, bremsstrahlung contribution to the gamma spectra is suggested and modeled. Calculation results indicate a good agreement between this hypothesis and the present measurements.