Uranium Enrichment Measurement Using Enrichment-Meter Approach

Abstract

The 235U enrichment is one of the most important characteristics of nuclear materials for nuclear safeguards purposes. The multi-group γ-ray analysis method for uranium (MGAU) is an important non-destructive gamma spectroscopy method for 235U enrichment determination. Using that method, the typical measurement bias is below 3% for uranium material with abundance from 0.3 to 93 %. However, it is not applicable for the samples with thick container or without isotopic decay equilibrium. In this work, the enrichment meter method was studied with two uranium dioxide samples (235U abundance 0.71 % and 3.167 %). The nuclear materials spectra were measured using a planar high-purity germanium detector. Based on the specific gamma peak (185.71 keV) of relative high intensity, this traditional enrichment meter approach gives measurement bias more than 10 %. Thus, this work represents two objects: (1) an alternative approach which was investigated, where the calibration is performed through Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP5) instead of experiment in advance, as the measurement bias was reduced to be around 5 %. Thus, to use this approach, one should have the sample details, such as dimensions, chemical composition and container. (2) The influence of the container wall thickness on the measurement accuracy by Monte Carlo simulation. So, if the container wall thickness is not modeled correctly the measurement accuracy is influenced, which is investigated by simulation.