Applying Non-Destructive Analysis to Qualify Plutonium Materials for Disposition

The Savannah River Site (SRS) will provide permanent disposition for up to 13 metric tons of excess plutonium, packaged to the Department of Energy (DOE) Standard for Long-Term Storage (DOE-STD-3013) at Rocky Flats, Hanford, Savannah River, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos. A portion of this inventory is proposed as feed to the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The MFFF requires advance confirmation of the isotopic distribution to allow planning of fuel charges that will be delivered to civilian power reactors, and impurity information is important for process control and safety studies and to develop flowsheets for alternative disposition pathways. Only limited laboratory data are available for the isotopic and chemical compositions of impure oxides and metals in the proposed feeds. Traditional Gamma-Ray Isotopic techniques and improved Prompt Gamma Analysis have been extended to become key components of disposition planning.