High Accuracy U-235 Enrichment Verification Station for Low Enriched Uranium Alloys

The Y-12 National Security Complex is playing a role in the U.S. High Performance Research Reactor (USHPRR) Conversion program sponsored by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Global Threat Reduction. The USHPRR program has a goal of converting remaining U.S. reactors that continue to use highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The USHPRR program is currently developing a LEU Uranium-Molybdenum (U-Mo) monolithic fuel for use in the U.S. high performance research reactors.Y-12 is supporting both the fuel development and fuel fabrication efforts by fabricating low enriched U-Mo foils from its own source material for irradiation experiments and for optimizing the fabrication process in support of scaling up the process to a commercial production scale. Once the new fuel is qualified, Y-12 will produce and ship U-Mo coupons with verified 19.75% +0.2% - 0.3% U-235 enrichment to be fabricated into fuel elements for the USHPRRs. Considering this small enrichment tolerance and the transition into HEU being set strictly at 20% U-235, a characterization system with a measurement uncertainty of less than or equal to 0.1% in enrichment is desired to support customer requirements and minimize production costs. Typical uncertainty for most available characterization systems today is approximately 1-5%; therefore, a specialized system must be developed which results in a reduced measurement uncertainty. A potential system using a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been procured, and tests have been conducted to verify its capabilities with regards to the requirements. Using four U-Mo enrichment standards fabricated with complete isotopic and chemical characterization, infinite thickness and peak-ratio enrichment measurement methods have been considered for use. As a result of inhomogeneity within the U-Mo samples, FRAM, an isotopic analysis software, has been selected for initial testing. A systematic approach towards observing effects on FRAM’s enrichment analysis has been conducted with regards to count and dead time.