PERFORMANCE TEST OF A CANISTER-LOADING MONITOR FOR CANDU SPENT-FUEL DRY STORAGE

Year
2006
Author(s)
M.C. Miller - Los Alamos National Laboratory
S. Y. Lee - Los Alamos National Laboratory
H.O. Menlove - Los Alamos National Laboratory
I. J. Park - National Nuclear Management & Control Agency
Abstract
A significant safeguards effort is being required for the Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor system because of the large number of spent fuel bundles generated by an on-line loading mechanism. To provide a continuity of knowledge (COK) signature of the spent fuel, inspectors have requested implementation of an efficient method to monitor CANDU spent fuel storage. The main goals of this study are to develop a cost-effective passive neutron detector system to monitor the loading activity of CANDU spent fuel into a dry storage canister and to verify the integrity of spent fuel in the canister after the transfer campaign. To verify the feasibility of the system, a prototype canister-loading monitor (CLM) was designed, and its performance was analyzed by MCNPX simulations. Based on the simulation results, it is expected that the system would meet the design requirements to be used as a CLM and a verification system as well.