The specific (α,n) production rate for 234U in UF6

Stephen Croft, Andrea Favalli, Glenn A. Fugate, Ian Gauld, Robert D. McElroy, Angela Simone, Martyn T. Swinhoe, Ramkumar Venkataraman

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Natural, depleted, and low enriched uranium hexafluoride is manufactured and transported on an industrial scale to support commercial nuclear power plant operation. One-way material production and flow is verified by nuclear safeguards inspectorates is by neutron counting. The dominant neutron source term is (α,n) production due to 234U which gets enriched/depleted along with 235U. In this paper we describe recent efforts to accurately determine the (α,n)/s/g of 234U in UF6. This piece of nuclear data is of direct value to the nuclear safeguards community in the science-based verification and assay of bulk uranium hexafluoride. It also provides a benchmark on codes that calculate yield curves for various compounds from cross section data, and hence, provides a scale or normalization constraint on evaluated basic cross section data. In turn, evaluated basic data allows the yield from other materials to be calculated; for instance, moist uranyl fluoride, which is of interest in holdup measurements.

Funding

This work was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) , National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), United States , Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, United States Research and Development (NA-22).

Keywords

  • Alpha-neutron reaction
  • Nuclear safeguards
  • Uranium hexafluoride

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