• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2004

Determination of actinides in the environmental sample requires separation of each element. This procedure is tedious and time consuming. And also, the detection limits of some nuclides using alpha spectrometry are rather higher. To overcome the lower detection limit and complicated separation procedure, a simple analytical technique for the determination of actinide isotopes in the environmental samples was developed and applied to IAEA and NIST reference sediment samples. For the separation of actinides from matrix, anion exchange resin and TRU-spec extraction chromatography resin were used and chemical yields were obtained using natural uranium, thorium, $^{242}Pu$ and $^{243}Am$ tracers. For overcoming the higher detection limits of U and Th in alpha spectrometry, neutron activation analysis was applied. Using combined method, the detection limit was increased about 10 times. The activity values of each isotope were consistent with the reference values reported by IAEA and NIST.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2662-2669
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• 2023

For the precise measurements of special nuclear materials (SNM) including Pu and Am isotopes, we have used phoswich detector combination of two single crystal scintillators of Gd₃Ga₃Al₂O₁₂:Ce and CsI:Tl. High detection efficiency and sensitivity along with high figure of merit for the discrimination of these phoswich detectors ensures the detection and discrimination of thermal neutrons and gammas from spontaneous fission of Pu and other isotopes in presence of high gamma background. Using this detector, the low energy gammas, which is stopped completely in 1mm thick disc of GGAG, can be also discriminated from high energies gamma and shows linearity in wide range of sample quantities. By changing only the appropriate shielding, the similar setup was used for thermal neutron detection and shows a very good linearity over wide range. The quantity of a test sample was also calculated accurately by using the measured calibrated plot.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.363-367
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• 2003

Much attention has been given to an electrochemical reduction process for converting uranium oxide to uranium metal in molten salt. The process has the versatility of being adopted for reducing other actinide and rare-earth metals from their oxides. Using the metal oxide to be reduced as a integrated cathode designed originally and inert conductors as anodes, oxygen anions are removed from the cathode and oxidized at the surface of the anodes in a molten salt cell. However, the electrochemical properties of alkali and alkali-earth metal oxides in molten salt have not been investigated thoroughly, which made the process incomplete when it is considered as a unit process in a back-end fuel cycle. It is well known that cesium and strontium Isotopes in spent fuel are main contributors for head load. The properties of cesium, strontium, and barium oxides such as the dissolution rates and reduction potentials in molten LiC1 dissolving $Li_2O$ are examined.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2005

Isotopes of alkali and alkaline earth metals (AM and AEM) are the main contributors to the heat load and the radiotoxicity of spent fuel (SF) . These components are separated from the SF and dissolved in a molten LiCl in an electrolytic reduction process. A mass transfer model is developed to describe the diffusion behavior of Cs, Sr, and Ba in the SF into the molten salt. The model is an analytical solution of Fick's second law of diffusion for a cylinder which is the shape of a cathode in the electrolytic reduction process. And the model is also applied to depict the concentration profile of the oxygen ion which is produced by the electrolysis of Li$_{2}$O. The regressed diffusion coefficients of the model correlating the experimentally measured data are evaluated to be greater in the order of Ba, Cs, and Sr for the metal ions and the diffusion of the oxygen ion is slower than the metal ions which implies that different mechanisms govern the diffusion of the metal ions and the oxygen ions in a molten LiCl.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.83-86
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• 2009

The single crystal scintillator of bismuth germinate ($Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}$:BGO) was successfully grown by the conventional Czochraski technique. The characteristics of the grown BGO were evaluated and presented on the excitation, emission responses and energy spectra of the $\gamma$-rays from $^{241}Am$, $^{133}Ba$, $^{57}Co$, $^{22}Na$, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{54}Mn$ radio-isotopes. The energy resolution of grown BGO, $\Delta$E/E, was estimated to be 12.1% at 662 keV of $\gamma$-ray for $^{137}Cs$ nuclide. Compared to the commercial BGO crystal, we confirmed that the grown BGO has a good performance and is comparable to reference one.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2803-2815
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• 2021

This paper addresses the uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of a depleted light-water fuel assembly of the Turkey Point-3 benchmark. The uncertainty of the fuel assembly decay heat and isotopic densities is quantified with respect to three different groups of diverse parameters: nuclear data, assembly design, and reactor core operation. The uncertainty propagation is conducted using a two-step analysis code system comprising the lattice code STREAM, nodal code RAST-K, and spent nuclear fuel module SNF through the random sampling of microscopic cross-sections, fuel rod sizes, number densities, reactor core total power, and temperature distributions. Overall, the statistical analysis of the calculated samples demonstrates that the decay heat uncertainty decreases with the cooling time. The nuclear data and assembly design parameters are proven to be the largest contributors to the decay heat uncertainty, whereas the reactor core power and inlet coolant temperature have a minor effect. The majority of the decay heat uncertainties are delivered by a small number of isotopes such as ²⁴¹Am, ¹³⁷Ba, ²⁴⁴Cm, ²³⁸Pu, and ⁹⁰Y.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2166-2171
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• 2023

In the present study, six silicone rubber doped by tellurium borate oxides were fabricated using the casting method. The densities of the fabricated silicon rubber-doped by tellurium borate oxides samples were measured using the Archimedes Method. Moreover, the linear attenuation coefficient of silicone rubber doped tellurium borate oxides samples was evaluated experimentally using the hyper pure germanium, and the recorded linear attenuation coefficient values were affirmed using the theoretical Phy-X program. The experimental measurements were performed using the narrow beam transmission method with radioactive isotopes Am-241, Cs-137, and Co-60 with energies of 59, 661, 1173, and 1332 keV. The linear attenuation coefficient values showed an enhancement by 4.73 times, 1.20 time, 1.17, time, and 1.17 time, respectively at gamma photon energies of 59, 661, 1173, and 1332 keV, when the TeO₂ concentration increased in the fabricated composites from 0 to 50 wt%. The enhancement of the linear attenuation coefficient values has a positive effect on the transmission rate values where the half-value thickness and transmission rate were decreased accompanied by an increase in the RPE.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3913-3923
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• 2023

Todays, medium energy resolution detectors are preferably used in radioisotope identification devices(RID) in nuclear and radioactive material categorization. However, there is still a need to develop or enhance « automated identifiers » for the useful RID algorithms. To decide whether any material is SNM or NORM, a key parameter is the better energy resolution of the detector. Although masking, shielding and gain shift/stabilization and other affecting parameters on site are also important for successful operations, the suitability of the RID algorithm is also a critical point to enhance the identification reliability while extracting the features from the spectral analysis. In this study, a RID algorithm based on Bayesian statistical method has been modified for medium energy resolution detectors and applied to the uranium gamma-ray spectra taken by a LaBr3:Ce detector. The present Bayesian RID algorithm covers up to 2000 keV energy range. It uses the peak centroids, the peak areas from the measured gamma-ray spectra. The extraction features are derived from the peak-based Bayesian classifiers to estimate a posterior probability for each isotope in the ANSI library. The program operations were tested under a MATLAB platform. The present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm was validated by using single isotopes(²⁴¹Am, ⁵⁷Co, ¹³⁷Cs, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁶⁰Co), and then applied to five standard nuclear materials(0.32-4.51% at.²³⁵U), as well as natural U- and Th-ores. The ID performance of the RID algorithm was quantified in terms of F-score for each isotope. The posterior probability is calculated to be 54.5-74.4% for ²³⁸U and 4.7-10.5% for ²³⁵U in EC-NRM171 uranium materials. For the case of the more complex gamma-ray spectra from CRMs, the total scoring (ST) method was preferred for its ID performance evaluation. It was shown that the present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm can be applied to identify ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U isotopes in LEU or natural U-Th samples if a medium energy resolution detector is was in the measurements.