Verification of 235U mass content in some nuclear fuel fabrication for CANDU reactors by an absolute method

• Main Authors: Ahmed G. Mostafa, Sayed A. Makhlouf, Elham El-Hakim, Morsy S. El-Tahawy, Abdel Fatah A. Hamed, Atef El-Taher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Nuclear Research, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 2020-03-01
• Series: Âderna Fìzika ta Energetika
• Subjects: fuel fabrication; physical inventory taking; monte carlo method.
• Online Access: http://jnpae.kinr.kiev.ua/21.1/html/21.1.0049.html

In this paper, the physical inventory taking of nuclear materials (NM) (under safeguards application) at the nuclear fuel research laboratory at Inshas, Egypt has been considered. NM with different forms and sizes were verified. The verification method based on non-destructive measurements of gamma radiation emitted from NM was tested. Monte Carlo method (MCNP5) and Multi-Group Analysis software (MGAU Genie 2000, version 3.2) were used to estimate 235U mass content in the studied forms. Some of the parameters which affect NM mass estimation were also investigated. The proposed procedure covers different forms found at the nuclear fuel research laboratory such as pellets, sludge, and rods. The average accuracies for the estimated 235U masses ranged between -0.351 and -1.005 %, while the precision was about 2.065 and 7.45 % for MCNP5 and MGAU respectively. These results are found to be acceptable within the limits of the International Target Values.