CALIBRATION OF THE SPENT-FUEL PLUTONIUM COINCIDENCE COUNTER AT THE TAIWAN RESEARCH REACTOR

Year
2007
Author(s)
M.C. Miller - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Howard O. Menlove - Los Alamos National Laboratory
S. Y. Lee - Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. B. Marlow - Los Alamos National Laboratory
C. D. Rael - Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. B. Wang - Institute of Nuclear Energy Research
M. C. Yuan - Institute of Nuclear Energy Research
Abstract
During the past 20 years, the spent-fuel canisters stored in the Taiwan Research Reactor (TRR) storage pool have deteriorated badly. In order to stabilize the spent fuel, the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) in Taiwan decided to convert the spent fuel from metal to an oxide powder. The International Atomic Energy Agency, INER, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have been collaborating on the nuclear safeguards for this spent-fuel stabilization program. A spent-fuel plutonium coincidence counter (SPCC) was developed to measure the spent fuel at the TRR in order to improve the quality and accuracy of the operatordeclared input to the stabilization process. We present the results of installing the SPCC at INER’s spent-fuel storage pool in 2006.