Calibration Tools for Measurement of Highly Enriched Uranium in Oxide and Mixed Uranium-Plutonium Oxide with a Passive-Active Neutron Drum Shuffler

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has completed an extensive effort to calibrate the LLNL passive-active neutron drum (PAN) shuffler (Canberra Model JCC-92) for accountability measurement of highly enriched uranium (HEU) oxide and HEU in mixed uranium-plutonium (U-Pu) oxide. Earlier papers [1, 2] described the PAN shuffler calibration over a range of item properties by standards measurements and an extensive series of detailed simulation calculations. With a single normalization factor, the simulations agree with the HEU oxide standards measurements to within ±1.2% at one standard deviation. Measurement errors on mixed U-Pu oxide samples are in the ±2% to ±10% range, or ±20 g for the smaller items. The purpose of this paper is to facilitate transfer of the LLNL procedure and calibration algorithms to external users who possess an identical, or equivalent, PAN shuffler. Steps include (1) measurement of HEU standards or working reference materials (WRMs); (2) MCNP simulation calculations for the standards or WRMs and a range of possible masses in the same containers; (3) a normalization of the calibration algorithms using the standard or WRM measurements to account for differences in the Cf source strength, the delayed- 252 neutron nuclear data, effects of the irradiation protocol, and detector efficiency; and (4) a verification of the simulation series trends against like LLNL results. Tools include EXCEL/Visual Basic programs which pre- and post-process the simulations, control the normalization, and embody the calibration algorithms.