Year
2014
Abstract
Storing well cooled used fuel in dry storage casks has become a commonplace occurrence in many fuel cycles around the world. These casks represent significant quantities of nuclear material that must be kept under control and meet international nuclear safeguards requirements. Given that the used fuel is highly radioactive material, inspections that involve opening and examining the contents of a cask would require a large effort, for even a small number of casks, and could result in a significant dose to the inspectors. Furthermore, if continuity of knowledge is lost a method that confirms the identity of the cask contents, accomplished without moving, opening and inspecting the cask would be useful. Additionally, a method that could support the process monitoring requirements of domestic material control and accounting (MC&A) and international safeguards, would be of great benefit to the fuel cycle community. The arrangement of fuel inside the casks provides a unique neutron signature outside of the cask; this signature can be the basis of a unique fingerprint that will identify a specific cask and its used fuel content. This work describes in detail the method of fingerprinting a used fuel cask based on neutrons emitted from the cask filled with used fuel.