Abstract
Fluid-fueled molten-salt reactors (MSRs) are actively being developed by several companies, with plans to deploy them internationally. The current IAEA inspection tools are largely incompatible with the unique design features of liquid fuel MSRs (e.g., the complex fuel chemistry, circulating fuel inventory, bulk accountancy, and high radiation environment). For these reasons, safeguards for MSRs are seen as challenging and require the development of new techniques. This paper proposes one such technique through the observation of the reactor’s off-gas. Any reactor design using low-enriched uranium will build up plutonium as the fuel undergoes burnup. Plutonium has different fission product yields than uranium. Therefore, a shift in fission product production is expected with fuel evolution. The passive removal of certain gaseous fission products to the off-gas tank of an MSR provides a valuable opportunity for analysis without significant modifications to the design of the system. Uniquely, due to the gaseous nature of the isotopes, beta particle emissions are available for observation. The ratios of these fission product isotopes can, thus, be traced back to the relative amount and types of fissile isotopes in the core. This proposed technique represents an effective safeguards tool for bulk accountancy which, while avoiding being onerous, could be used in concert with other techniques to meet the IAEA’s timeliness goals for the detection of a diversion.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 391-411 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of Nuclear Engineering |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2023 |
Funding
This research and development at the University of Tennessee is being funded by a grant from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (subcontract 4000159472) and from the United States Department of Energy award DE-NE0008793. The authors are grateful for this generous support.
Funders | Funder number |
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University of Tennessee | |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | 4000159472 |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
U.S. Department of Energy | DE-NE0008793 |
U.S. Department of Energy |
Keywords
- beta particle spectroscopy
- molten-salt reactors
- Off-Gas management
- plutonium signatures
- safeguards