Active Well Neutron Coincidence Assays for U-235 Content in HB-Line Desicooler Repackage Campaign at the Savannah River Site

Active Well Neutron Coincidence Assays for U-235 Content in HB-Line Desicooler Repackage Campaign at the Savannah River Site
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Total Pages: 5
Release: 2004
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At HB-Line of the Savannah River Site, 4.3 kg of U-235 have been repackaged from FB-Line Desicooler material into a cement matrix in individual one-gallon paint cans for disposition as solid waste. The 4.3 kg of U-235 material were packaged into 172 paint cans with U-235 contents ranging from 8.9 g up to 32 g. Prior to transfer to the Solid Waste Facilities, verification measurements of selected cans were performed to assure valid control of the solid waste. The HB-Line-DOE Sampling Plan designated confirmatory assays, and a total of 67 paint cans were assayed to verify the contents. The Analytical Development Section of the Savannah River National Laboratory selected an active well coincidence neutron counter as the best instrument available to accomplish the assays. The instrument was set up at-line in the thermal excitation mode, and three standard samples that contained 8.9-, 28.5-, and 32.4-g of U-235 were counted for twenty hours of acquisition time each. A linear calibration based on the observed doubles rates was installed in the instrument. Subsequent verification measurements were performed on the selected samples using fifteen one-minute active acquisitions. Of the 67 samples assayed, 53 verification measurements were within the limits greater than or less than 32 per cent prescribed by the sample plan. Eleven samples had results that were biased low by as much as 95 percent, and three samples had results that were biased high and outside of the prescribed range. Because of the extremely variable nature of the cement matrix these results were not unexpected. From the observed data we were able to use the singles rates to develop a correction factor that we could apply to the doubles rates of the eleven negatively biased results that brought each verification measurement back into the prescribed range. The three samples that had large positive biases in the verification measurements were observed in the passive acquisition mode to confirm contributions from trans-uranium species. This paper will describe the calibrations, verification measurements, applied corrections, and diagnostic tests that were involved in completing the prescribed assays.