Use of curium spontaneous fission neutrons for safeguardability of remotely-handled nuclear facilities: Fuel fabrication in pyroprocessing

Abstract

Advanced nuclear reactor systems (NESs) will utilize remotely-handled facilities in which batch-type processing will occur in hot cells. There are no current formalized criteria for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards for these systems. This creates new challenges to develop methodologies for demonstrating the safeguardability of these facilities. A High Reliability Safeguards (HRS) approach therefore has been proposed to enhance intrinsic proliferation resistance by establishing an envelope of adaptable functional components as part of a facility design strategy. Additionally, system assessment can be modeled concurrently with safety and physical security by a risk-informed approach. The HRS approach is currently applied to a commercial pyroprocessing facility as an example system.A scoping study is presented as the first in a series of quantitative modeling efforts to extend the HRS approach. These efforts currently focus on investigating the magnitude of neutron fluxes due to spontaneous fission of curium for commercial batch sizes and held up materials for important processes in the system. Here, the fuel fabrication process is studied. The intent of these initial studies is to learn how the intrinsic properties of materials in the pyroprocessing system will affect facility design and safeguards. The model presented in this paper is intended to be adaptable to more practical and complex scenarios in order to evaluate the safeguardability of remotely-handled nuclear facilities.