Capabilities of Ruthenium Isotopes in Distinguishing Spent Reactor Fuel Type and Burnu p

A computational study was performed to determine the capability of using ruthenium deposits around a reprocessing facility to determine the burnup of the fuel reprocessed and the type of reactor that produced the fuel. The higher-mass ruthenium isotopes are produced in significant quantity via fission. It was shown that the four stable and one radioactive fissiogenic isotopes yielded a significant discrimination capability. For the four reactor types studied here, it was shown that a spread of more than 50 p e rcent in certain isotopic ratios existed between the reactor types. This separation of the reactor types should allow for good discrimination of burnup and fuel type.