Monitoring Solutions for Nuclear Materials Safeguards S' A' McElhaney, R' Lucero

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Monitoring Solutions for Nuclear Materials
Safeguards S. A. McElhaney, R. Lucero M.
Clapham BIL Solutions Inc. 4001 Office
Court Drive 800 Santa Fe, NM 87507, USA505 424
6660
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Background

• BIL is a world leader in the measurement and
  characterization of radioactive materials. BILs
  history and evolution is as follows
• BIL Solutions began as Pajarito Scientific Corp.
  (PSC), a technology transfer company, in 1986.
• British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL, plc)
  purchased PSC in 1995.
• BNFL Instruments Inc. (BII) was officially
  changed from PSC in 1997.
• BII changed its name to BIL Solutions, Inc. (BIL)
  in 2005.
• BIL was sold by BNFL and changed its name to PSC
  Solutions in 2007.
• PSC Solutions, Inc. is now a small, American
  owned business.

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Areas of Expertise

• BILs experience covers the major nuclear
  applications areas including
• NDA Program Development Implementation
• Instrumentation Design Development
• Waste Monitoring and Certification
• WIPP Characterization
• Decommissioning
• Process Monitoring and Control Systems
• Spent Fuel Characterization
• Measurement Solutions for Nuclear Material
  Accountancy Safeguards

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Measurement Solutions for Nuclear Material
Accountancy Safeguards

• Safeguards instrumentation and methodology must
  continue to evolve to meet new challenges and
  better understand existing challenges
• Advancing safeguards measurements require early
  modeling and analysis of facility processes as
  well as integration of state-of-the-art and
  innovative measurement systems
• Safeguards solutions need to focus on the overall
  picture
• Technology development needs include advanced
  instrumentation, portable NDA capability,
  unattended and remote monitoring, containment and
  surveillance, and data integration and analysis

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Measurement Solutions for Nuclear Material
Accountancy Safeguards

• BIL offers a worldwide capability in Accountancy
  and Safeguards based on over 25 years of
  experience. We strive to provide innovative
  solutions such as
• FissTrack Instrumentation
• Neutron Counting Electronics
• PeakDoctor Spectral Analysis Software
• RadScan 800 Gamma Imager
• Spent Fuel Monitoring

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FissTrack Instrumentation
The new FissTrack range of instruments and
systems offers significant benefits through the
integration of advanced measurement techniques
with sophisticated data processing, analysis, and
retrieval systems.
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FissTrack Instrumentation Design

• The FissTrack design has been used in
• Plutonium or MOX Inventory Monitoring System
• Plutonium Can Contents Monitor
• Plutonium Hold-Up Monitor
• Tracer Portable Hold-Up Monitor

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FissTrack Instrumentation Benefits

• Tamper-resistant supporting full data security
• Remote maintenance and communications capability
• Enhanced electronic noise immunity
• Continuous, real-time systems status checking
• Full retrospective analysis of stored data

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Neutron Electronics

• The neutron signal collection and data
  processing technology is based on the time
  stamping of pulses from individual neutron
  detectors.
• The system has taken neutron detection
  technology away from cable-heavy radial
  architectures to a simple distributed ring system
  with local processing nodes that can be flexibly
  configured for various neutron counting
  applications.

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Neutron Electronics Design
? Small low-cost, high efficiency, amplifiers,
which are close-coupled to the detectors ?
Simplification of detector cabling to use
composite detector cable to provide both the
power to amplifiers and return signal path for
neutron pulses ? Distributed microcontroller Hub
units are used as local nodes to power the
amplifiers and process commands sent to them from
the Data Acquisition Computer (DAC) for
monitoring or control purposes ? Hubs assign each
neutron event a detector address which is
transmitted via a high speed Fiber Optic Data
Ring to the DAC ? Minimization of Dead Time is
achieved by each Hub de-randomizing concurrent
neutron events important for coincidence and
multiplicity counting ? Neutron event timestamp
is added to the Hub/detector address on arrival
at the DAC ? Software data acquisition is
performed by analysis of time stamped data
stream ? Remote diagnostics and control of Hubs
from the DAC ? Flexibility of configuration and
application using only three standard modules

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Neutron Electronics Benefits

• Accuracy and Sensitivity high count rates with
  very low dead times.
• Scalability System can accommodate up to 240
  detectors distributed over 30 Hubs on a single
  fiber optic.
• Flexibility - Detectors can be grouped in any
  configuration and many types of counting analysis
  performed. Data can be acquired individually for
  each detector, combined in groups, or as a system
  total, and each individual detector may be used
  in more than one grouping.
• Maintenance and Diagnostics Easy to maintain
  and remote diagnostic and status signals are sent
  back from Hubs allowing automatic system
  monitoring and alarming of malfunctions.
• Tamperproof - Fiber optic data ring is monitored
  for continuity and tampering by means of watchdog
  signals. This improves the tamper-proofing of the
  system and enhances its applicability within
  regulatory environments.

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PeakDoctor Spectral Analysis

• PeakDoctor is a highly sophisticated gamma
  spectroscopy analysis tool designed to provide
  extremely accurate peak fit quantification for a
  wide range of gamma spectroscopy data (high and
  low resolution).
• BIL Solutions is engaged with Los Alamos National
  Laboratory (N-2, WS-LLWD and TT groups) in a
  Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
  (CRADA) to commercialize the software.
• The initial commercial version utilizes a
  user-friendly LabView based programming platform.
  
• The routine is focused on precisely evaluating
  spectral data in order to maximize the accuracy
  of two key components of spectral analysis
• 1) the net counts in all photopeak regions
• 2) nuclide identification

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PeakDoctor Design Features

• PeakDoctor is extremely interactive allowing the
  skills of the analyst to guide the routine
  through a number of analysis steps.
• Extensive and specialized radionuclide libraries
  are used in PeakDoctor to optimize gamma-ray
  energy calibration and, thus isotopic
  identification.
• Advanced features include
• 1) Step peak fitting
• 2) Backscatter and Compton Edge fitting
• 3) Peak tailing correction
• Such advanced peak fitting options are not
  available or easily accomplished in current
  commercially available peak fitting software.

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PeakDoctor User Interface

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PeakDoctor User Interface

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RadScan 800 Gamma Imager

• RadScan remotely locates and efficiently
  characterizes gamma hotspots in a wide variety of
  environments including building surfaces, cells,
  and in/on gloveboxes and process vessels.
• RadScan maps and records the distribution and
  intensity of the measured radiation using
  spectral data and real-time color video images
  which may be viewed remotely.

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RadScan 800 Gamma Imager Benefits

• Unique, remote-operated gamma spectroscopy imager
• Performs radiation surveys quickly and safely
• Compact and robust
• Locates and characterizes nuclides in elevated
  gamma-emitting areas
• Exceptionally accurate

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Spent Fuel Monitoring

• The Spent Fuel Monitoring system is based on over
  20 years experience in the development and use of
  spent fuel systems in the US and UK.
• The Spent Fuel Monitoring Service provides an
  independent verification of fuel characteristics.
• Characterization of spent nuclear fuel
• Measurement of burnup and cooling time
• Measurement of axial burnup profile
• Measurement data may be used for burnup credit
  allowing considerable cost savings in spent fuel
  storage, transport and disposal

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Spent Fuel Monitoring Design

• Measurement based on High Resolution Gamma
  Spectroscopy
• Detection system is mounted onto side of storage
  pool in fixed orientation
• Fuel assemblies delivered to the monitoring
  position with standard handling equipment
• Data acquisition depends on required throughput
  and precision
• System is robust and designed to be in contact
  with fuel during measurement to guarantee
  positional accuracy
• Gamma collimator is enclosed in the housing which
  defines a fixed field of view for the fuel,
  enables very good repeatability and precision to
  be obtained while allowing short measurement
  times.

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Spent Fuel Monitoring Performance

• Turnkey burnup and cooling time verification for
  spent nuclear fuel
• High relsolution germanium gamma detector (HRGS)
• Fuel Types PWR, BWR, SGHWR fuel, enrichments up
  to 4 w/, up to 30 years cooled
• Burnup uncertainty better than 4
• Cooling time (depending on age of fuel) better
  than 5

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Conclusions

• Safeguards approaches must continue to evolve to
  meet new challenges
• Advanced safeguards techniques require early
  modeling and analysis of facility processes as
  well as integration of state-of-the-art
  measurement systems
• Technology development needs include advanced
  instrumentation, portable NDA capability,
  unattended and remote monitoring, containment and
  surveillance, and data integration and analysis