Review and Characterization of Best Candidate Isotopes for Burnup Analysis and Monitoring of Irradiated Fuel
Abstract
This research is an extension of feasibility study of MOX fuel online burnup analysis. A multitude of fission products identified as candidates have been scrutinized for their suitability of burnup analysis and spent fuel analysis. Best isotopes obtained for analysis by investigating half-life, fission yield, branching ratios, production modes, thermal neutron absorption cross section and fuel matrix diffusivity. ¹³²I and ⁹⁷Nb are identified as good isotope candidates for on-line burnup analysis. ¹³²I is also a good candidate for plutonium/uranium discrimination due to the large difference in the fission yield of the isotope. For interim storage monitoring the well-established cesium isotopes appears to be the best choices unless the data gaps are addressed. Other alternate for cesium for interim monitoring is ¹³¹I, ¹⁴⁰La, and ⁹⁵Nb at the present time. Selection of one over the other choice must be made based on application. For the long-term storage monitoring ⁹⁴Nb is the only attractive candidate. It has a low diffusion rate of ~10ˉ¹¹ cm²/s, an almost zero neutron absorption cross section making it burnup history independent and decent gamma yield of 1.44E-09. In addition, the paper also identifies the data gaps for developing a robust burnup analysis tool using gamma spectroscopy. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Recommended Citation
T. Akyurek et al., "Review and Characterization of Best Candidate Isotopes for Burnup Analysis and Monitoring of Irradiated Fuel," Annals of Nuclear Energy, Elsevier, Jan 2014.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2013.12.014
Department(s)
Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science
Keywords and Phrases
Burnup Credit; Gamma Spectroscopy; Half Lives; Nuclear Fuel
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0306-4549
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2014 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2014
