VALIDATION OF INVERSE METHODS APPLIED TO FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF SPENT FUEL

Inverse depletion/decay methods are useful in nuclear forensics. Previously, inverse methods were applied to the prediction of burnup, initial enrichment, and cooling time for selected spent nuclear fuels based on measured actinide and fission product concentrations. In that work nine spent fuel samples were randomly selected from an online data compilation, and a demonstration of prediction capabilities was attempted using measured isotopic data. The current approach is to evaluate measured nuclide concentrations within the same element to see if complementary information can be obtained in addition to the reactor burnup, enrichment, and cooling. Specifically, the reactor power and the fuel irradiation times are sought, which would confirm that inverse depletion/decay techniques possess a full suite of predictive capabilities.