Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Desimone, David J..
The x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer is sensitive to the elemental composition of the assayed sample. If properly setup and tuned, the typical handheld instrument can detect x-ray fluorescence from any element usually greater than atomic number 11, i.e. from magnesium up.
Measurements using a mechanically cooled portable high purity germanium HPGe Ortec detective were taken of a type B drum Serial number R-1157 to determine if any radioactive material was inside. The Drum, R-1157, spectrum was analyzed using PeakEasy 4.84 and a visual look at the spectrum showed background radiation.
In Building 2 A-wing vault MET-5 has some drums and other packages they wanted NEN-1 help identifying nondestructively. Measurements using a mechanically cooled portable high-purity germanium HPGe Ortec detective were taken of a paint can container labeled DU-2A to determine if any radioactive material was inside. The HPGe detector measures the gamma rays emitted by radioactive material and displays it as a spectrum. The spectrum is used to identify this radioactive material by using appropriate analysis software and identifying the gamma ray peaks. A paint can container, DU-2A, was analyzed with PeakEasy 4.84 and FRAM 5.2. The FRAM report is shown. The enrichment is 0.091% U235 and 99.907% U238. This material is depleted uranium. The measurement was performed in the near field, and to extract a mass a far field measurement will need to be taken.
This report summarizes the work done under a DNDO R&D funded project on the development of the differential dieaway method to measure plutonium in spent fuel. There are large amounts of plutonium that are contained in spent fuel assemblies, and currently there is no way to make quantitative non-destructive assay. This has led NA24 under the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) to establish a multi-year program to investigate, develop and implement measurement techniques for spent fuel. The techniques which are being experimentally tested by the existing NGSI project do not include any pulsed neutron active techniques. The present work covers the active neutron differential dieaway technique and has advanced the state of knowledge of this technique as well as produced a design for a practical active neutron interrogation instrument for spent fuel. Monte Carlo results from the NGSI effort show that much higher accuracy (1-2%) for the Pu content in spent fuel assemblies can be obtained with active neutron interrogation techniques than passive techniques, and this would allow their use for nuclear material accountancy independently of any information from the operator. The main purpose of this work was to develop an active neutron interrogation technique for spent nuclear fuel.
We examined x-rays for the use as authentication and verification tool in treaty verification. Several x-ray pictures were taken to determine the quality and feasibility of x-rays for these tasks. This document describes the capability of the used x-ray system and outlines its parameters and possible use.
Numerous critical assembly experiments were performed at TA-18 beginning in the 1940’s. Several buildings, Casa 2 and Casa 3, were constructed to house these experiments. All gamma-ray hold-up measurements and analysis were performed for Casa 2 and Casa 3 in November/December 2015 to support decommissioning and demolition of the facilities. A technique called room hold-up was used to measure the nuclear materials. A grid pattern was laid out on the large room floor approximately every 9-10 feet. A three- to five-minute measurement was taken with a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector at each location. Also, several measurements were taken in two storage vaults of Casa 3. A calibration check of the detectors showed that the efficiency and energy scale were stable. The final results of the hold-up measurements for Casa 2 and 3 are given.
In order to operate TA-66 as a radiological facility with the quantity of nuclear material required to fulfil its mission, a criticality safety evaluation was required. This evaluation defined the control parameters for operations at the facility. The resulting evaluation for TA-66 placed limits on the amount of SNM, as well as other materials such as beryllium. In addition, there is a limit on the number of uranium fuel rods allowed subject to enrichment, outer diameter, and overall length restrictions. The enrichments for the rods to be shipped to TA-66 were documented in LA-UR-13-23581, but the outer diameter and length were not documented. This report provides this information.
No abstract provided
In this report, new experimental data and MCNPX simulation results of the differential die-away (DDA) instrument response to the presence of neutron absorbers are evaluated. In our previous fresh nuclear fuel experiments and simulations, no neutron absorbers or poisons were included in the fuel definition. These new results showcase the capability of the DDA instrument to acquire data from a system that better mimics spent nuclear fuel.
Experimental results of the assay of mock-up (fresh) fuel with the differential die-away (DDA) instrument were compared to the Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) simulation results. Most principal experimental observables, the die-away time and the in tegral of the DDA signal in several time domains, have been found in good agreement with the MCNPX simulation results. The remaining discrepancies between the simulation and experimental results are likely due to small differences between the actual experimental setup and the simulated geometry, including uncertainty in the DT neutron generator yield. Within this report we also present a sensitivity study of the DDA instrument which is a complex and sensitive system and demonstrate to what degree it can be impacted by geometry, material composition, and electronics performance.
Four helium-3 ( 3 He) detector/preamplifier packages (¾”/KM200, DDSI/PDT-A111, DDA/PDT-A111, and DDA/PDT10A) were experimentally tested to determine the deadtime effects at different DT neutron generator output settings. At very high count rates, the ¾”/KM200 package performed best. At high count rates, the ¾”/KM200 and the DDSI/PDT-A111 packages performed very well, with the DDSI/PDT-A111 operating with slightly higher efficiency. All of the packages performed similarly at mid to low count rates. Proposed improvements include using a fast recovery LANL-made dual channel preamplifier, testing smaller diameter 3 He tubes, and further investigating quench gases.
Fresh fuel experiments for the differential die-away (DDA) project were performed using a DT neutron generator, a 15x15 PWR fuel assembly, and nine 3 He detectors in a water tank inside of a shielded cell at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Eight different fuel enrichments were created using low enriched (LEU) and depleted uranium (DU) dioxide fuel rods. A list-mode data acquisition system recorded the time-dependent signal and analysis of the DDA signal die-away time was performed. The die-away time depended on the amount of fissile material in the fuel assembly and the position of the detector. These experiments were performed in support of the spent nuclear fuel Next Generation Safeguards Initiative DDA project. Lessons learned from the fresh fuel DDA instrument experiments and simulations will provide useful information to the spent fuel project.
This report highlights the activities and facilities at LANL's Center for Global Nuclear Security.
Many applications in neutron experiments require the absolute determination of the neutron flux. For example, if the mass of special nuclear material (SNM) is to be determined accurately from a measurement then the number of neutron per sec per square centimeter may need to be known very well. This requires using a detector with a very well known efficiency over the neutron energy range of interest to measure this flux. In our case, to compare the Monte Carlo modeling predictions with actual measured data the absolute neutron generator emission rate must be determined. Below we discuss several techniques, their advantages and disadvantages.
NEN1 is in possession of a variety of nuclear fuel rods. For verification purposes and to help with criticality safety evaluations, these rods have been measured to determine their pallet diameter. In this paper, the methodology for acquiring the fuel rod pelet diameter is described and the analysis for the pallet diameter is presented.
We have developed a dynamic image reconstruction method called MVIR (Moving Voxel Image Reconstruction) for lane detection in multilane portal monitor systems. MVIR was evaluated for use in the Fixed Site Detection System, a prototype three-lane portal monitor system for EZ-pass toll plazas. As a baseline, we compared MVIR with a static image reconstruction method in analyzing the same real and simulated data sets. Performance was judged by the distributions of image intensities for source and no-source vehicles over many trials as a function of source strength. We found that MVIR produced significantly better results in all cases. The performance difference was greatest at low count rates, where source/no-source distributions were well separated with the MVIR method, allowing reliable source vehicle identification with a low probability of false positive identifications. Static reconstruction of the same data produced overlapping distributions that made source vehicle identification unreliable. The performance of the static method was acceptable at high count rates. Both algorithms reliably identified two strong sources passing through at nearly the same time.