Neutron resonance analysis for nuclear safeguards and security applications

Carlos Paradela,Mitsuo Koizumi,Hideo Harada,Fumito Kitatani,Harufumi Tsuchiya,Stefan Kopecky,Jan Heyse,Peter Schillebeeckx,A Plompen,P Siegler,S Oberstedt,J Heyse,W Mondelaers,S Kopecky,F.-J Hambsch,P Schillebeeckx

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201714609002

Abstract

Neutron-induced reactions can be used to study the properties of nuclear materials of interest in the fields of nuclear safeguards and security. The elemental and isotopic composition of these materials can be determined by using the presence of resonance structures. This idea is the basis of two non-destructive analysis techniques which have been developed at the GELINA neutron time-of-flight facility at JRC-Geel: Neutron Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA) and Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA). A combination of NRTA and NRCA has been proposed for the characterisation of particle-like debris of melted fuel formed in severe nuclear accidents. In this work, we present a quantitative validation of the NRTA technique which was used to determine the areal densities of Pu enriched reference samples used for safeguards applications. Less than 2% bias has been obtained for the fissile isotopes, with well-known total cross sections.

Highlights

The presence of resonance structures in neutron-induced reaction cross sections is the basis of Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA) and Neutron Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA) [1]
This idea is the basis of two non-destructive analysis techniques which have been developed at the GELINA neutron time-of-flight facility at Joint Research Center (JRC)-Geel: Neutron Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA) and Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA)
We present a quantitative validation of the NRTA technique which was used to determine the areal densities of Pu enriched reference samples used for safeguards applications

Summary

Introduction

The presence of resonance structures in neutron-induced reaction cross sections is the basis of Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA) and Neutron Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA) [1]. NRTA and NRCA are Non-Destructive Analysis (NDA) methods to determine the elemental and isotopic composition of materials and objects which do not require any sample preparation They are based on the well-known methodologies used for the measurement of neutron-induced cross section performed in Time-Of-Flight (TOF) neutron facilities [2]. Various analytical methods were studied in terms of their capability to take into account the powder characteristics and the best results were obtained using an empirical model proposed by Kopecky et al [10] and the Levermore-Pomraning model [11] Both models were implemented in the resonance shape analysis code REFIT [12] and validated with transmission experiments at GELINA [13]. In this work we will summarise the characteristics of this new facility and the results obtained in it for the characterisation of PuO2 reference samples by means of NRTA

Compact GELINA transmission station

Characterisation of PuO2 reference materials

Findings

Conclusions