Masters Theses

Abstract

"The United States has led the effort to promote peaceful use of nuclear power amongst states actively utilizing it as well as those looking to deploy the technology in the near future. With the attraction being demonstrated by various countries towards nuclear power comes the concern that a nation may have military aspirations for the use of nuclear energy. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has established nuclear safeguard protocols and procedures to mitigate nuclear proliferation. The work herein proposed a strategy to further enhance existing safeguard protocols by considering safeguard in nuclear fuel design. The strategy involved the use of radionuclides to profile nuclear fuels. Six radionuclides were selected as identifier materials. The decay and transmutation of these radionuclides were analyzed in reactor operation environment. MCNPX was used to simulate a reactor core. The perturbation in reactivity of the core due to the loading of the radionuclides was insignificant. The maximum positive and negative reactivity change induced was at day 1900 with a value of 0.00185 ± 0.00256 and at day 2000 with -0.00441 ± 0.00249, respectively. The mass of the radionuclides were practically unaffected by transmutation in the core; the change in radionuclide inventory was dominated by natural decay. The maximum material lost due to transmutation was 1.17% in Eu154. Extraneous signals from fission products identical to the radionuclide compromised the identifier signals. Eu154 saw a maximum intensity change at EOC and 30 days post-irradiation of 1260% and 4545%, respectively. Cs137 saw a minimum change of 12% and 89%, respectively. Mitigation of the extraneous signals is cardinal to the success of the proposed strategy. The predictability of natural decay provides a basis for the characterization of the signals from the radionuclide"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Alajo, Ayodeji Babatunde

Committee Member(s)

Castano Giraldo, Carlos Henry
Rovey, Joshua L.

Department(s)

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

Degree Name

M.S. in Nuclear Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Summer 2013

Pagination

xiii, 36 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Rights

© 2013 Aaron Dawon Peterson, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Nuclear fuels -- Design -- Safety measuresNuclear fuels -- Design -- Computer simulationNuclear fuels -- IdentificationRadioisotopes -- IdentificationNuclear nonproliferation -- Safety measuresSpent reactor fuels -- Safety measuresRadioisotopes -- Computer simulation

Thesis Number

T 10353

Electronic OCLC #

858610282

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