Year
2009
Abstract
The ability of inspection agencies and facility operators to measure samples containing mixtures of uranium, plutonium, and other actinides is becoming increasingly important as reprocessing spent nuclear fuel becomes more common. Mixed samples are difficult to measure because of the complex nature of neutron emission in various isotopes; however, measurements of these mixed samples may be possible if a mathematical correlation between various neutron sources can be determined. The purpose of this project was to investigate the feasibility of developing a method to quantitatively measure an oxide sample containing uranium, plutonium, and other actinides using an existing neutron multiplicity detector, such as the Active Well Coincidence Counter.