Applicability evaluation of candidate technologies for nuclear material quantification in fuel debris at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station; Passive neutron technique (Interim report)

Nagatani, Taketeru ; Kosuge, Yoshihiro*; Shirato, Atsuhiko*; Sato, Takashi*; Shiromo, Hideo ; Asano, Takashi 

Under the collaborative program with United States Department of Energy (DOE), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) have surveyed technologies for nuclear material quantification of fuel debris at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F) since 2012. Four research groups in JAEA and CRIEPI have evaluated independently the applicability for four technologies. We, Plutonium Fuel Development Center of JAEA, are in charge of development of the passive neutron technique. All parties recognized the importance of the characterization study on each candidate technology for establishment of the concept of integrated measurement system that combines several measurement technologies for accurate quantification. For the characterization study, standard fuel debris and canister models were developed. In order to perform the characterization study consistent with the other technologies, we evaluated the applicability of the passive neutron technique for nuclear material quantification of fuel debris based on the standard models. In this study, we performed the optimization of detector configuration and measurement parameter for passive neutron detector and then evaluated measurement accuracy. This paper provides the results of applicability evaluation on passive neutron technique for nuclear material quantification in fuel debris at 1F.