Title  Combined Radiation Detection Methods for Assay of Higher Actinides in Separation Processes (AFCI)	Researchers D. Beller Collaborators Mark Schanfein, Safeguards and Security Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory James Laidler, National Technical Director for Separations and Waste, Argonne National Laboratory Thomas Ward, UNLV Science Adviser for Russian Collaborations, TechSource, Inc.
Background  Monitoring of transuranic actinides (TRU–includes neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium) during the separation of used nuclear fuel has been identified as a critical research area in the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Research and Development program (AFC R&D). Recycling of used fuel by chemically separating it into uranium, fission products, and TRU would be the first step in this new fuel cycle. Material Protection, Accounting, and Control (MPAC) is necessary for materials accounting, criticality monitoring, and assurance of proliferation resistance.  In the MPAC project, faculty and students are investigating the potential to use combined neutron and gamma-ray detector systems to measure quantities and isotopic constituents contained during separations and intermediate storage. This will require knowledge of the nuclear and decay characteristics of materials during processing, the development of conceptual designs of monitoring systems, radiation transport studies to develop an understanding of operational regimes, and experiments to confirm performance. In addition, both passive and active concepts will be investigated, including collaborations with the Idaho Accelerator Center at Idaho State University (ISU) to use electron linear accelerators for producing photoneutrons in situ, for photon activation of TRU, or for stimulating emissions processes (e.g. x-ray fluorescence).	Research Objectives and Methods The ultimate objective of this project is to develop technology to detect and accurately measure quantities of higher actinides in processing systems without taking frequent samples. These systems include used fuel receipt, separations batches, and pipelines. A variety of measurements may be combined to calculate flow rates of actinide elements with a to-be-determined precision. Nuclear and decay characteristics of materials during processing will be acquired, conceptual designs of monitoring systems will be developed, radiation transport studies will be conducted to develop an understanding of operational regimes, and experiments will be performed to confirm performance. Radiation transport and scoping studies will be conducted to investigate combined gamma-ray, neutron, and active and passive detection techniques to measure quantities and isotopic constituents contained during separations and intermediate storage. Scoping and design studies will first be performed using validated data sets (decay properties and reaction cross sections) and the radiation transport code MCNPX. Basic measurements will then be performed and compared to predictions. Experiments to be conducted in subsequent work are to be determined, but may include small quantities of radioactive actinides at UNLV in addition to accelerator-coupled experiments at ISU.
Students  Quinten Newell G   Lawrence Lakeotes G Timothy Beller G	Department Mechanical Engineering
Final Report	Annual Report
Proposal 03/30/05	Quarterly Reports  01/01/06-03/31/06