APPLICATION OF THE ISOTOPE RATIO METHOD TO A BOILING WATER REACTOR

The Isotope Ratio Method (IRM) is a technique for estimating the energy or plutonium production in a fission reactor by measuring isotope ratios in non-fuel reactor components. The isotope ratios in these components can then be directly related to the cumulative energy production with standard reactor modeling methods. All reactor materials contain trace elemental impurities at parts per million levels, and the isotopes of these elements are transmuted by neutron irradiation in a predictable manner. While measuring the change in a particular isotope’s concentration is possible, it is difficult to correlate to energy production because the initial concentration of that element may not be accurately known. However, if the ratio of two isotopes of the same element can be measured, the energy production can then be determined without knowing the absolute concentration of that impurity since the initial natural ratio is known. This is the fundamental principle underlying the isotope ratio method. Extremely sensitive mass-spectrometric methods are currently available that allow accurate measurements of the impurity isotope ratios in samples. Additionally, “indicator” elements with stable activation products have been identified so that their post-irradiation isotope ratios remain constant. This method has been successfully demonstrated on graphite-moderated reactors. Graphite reactors are particularly well-suited to such analyses since the graphite moderator is resident in the fueled region of the core for the entire period of operation. Applying this method to other reactor types is more difficult since the resident portions of the reactor available for sampling are either outside the fueled region of the core or structural components of individual fuel assemblies. The goal of this research is to show that the isotope ratio method can produce meaningful results for light water-moderated power reactors. In this work, we use the isotope ratio method to estimate the energy production in boiling water reactor fuel bundles based on measurements taken from the corresponding fuel bundle channels. Our preliminary results are in good agreement with the operating history of the bundles.