Principle validation of nuclear fuel material isotopic composition measurement method based on photofission reactions |
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Authors: | Rei Kimura Hiroshi Sagara Satoshi Chiba |
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Affiliation: | Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-11-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan |
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Abstract: | We have developed a new nondestructive assay technique based on the photonuclear reaction, which is aimed at measuring the isotopic composition of nuclear fuel materials without relying on their self-generated neutron information. This methodology enables measurement of the number of neutrons produced by the photofission reactions at different specific photon energies, and only information on the relative counts and not the absolute values or energies, which are considerably affected by backgrounds, are required for the enrichment induction according to a mathematical process. The present methodology estimated the 235U enrichment value with 8% accuracy when the cross section uncertainty is 5%. |
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Keywords: | NDA photonuclear isotopic composition nuclear security non-proliferation photofission cross section uncertainty 235U enrichment |
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