• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2006

Destructive methods were used for the burnup determination of U-Zr alloy nuclear fuel irradiated in the High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO) at KAERI. The dissolution rate of unirradiated U-Zr alloy fuel in $HNO_3$/HF mixtures was investigated for the experimental conditions of a different temperature, and initial concentrations of HF and $HNO_3$. The irradiated U-Zr alloy fuel specimen was dissolved in a mixed acid condition of 3 M HNO3 and 1 M HF at $90^{\circ}C$ for 8 hours under reflux. The total burnup was determined from measurement of the Nd isotope burnup monitors. The method includes U, Pu, $^{148}Nd,\;^P{145}Nd+^{146}Nd,\;^{144}Nd+^{143}Nd$ and total Nd isotopes determination by the isotope dilution mass spectrometric method (IDMS) using triple spikes $(^{233}U,\;^{242}Pu\;and\;^{150}Nd)$. The effective fission yield was calculated from the weighted fission yields averaged over the irradiation period. The results are compared with that obtained by the destructive -spectrometric measurement of the $^{137}Cs$ monitor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.375-385
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• 2001

The total burnup in the spent U$_3$Si/Al fuel samples from Hanaro reactor was determined by destructive methods using $^{148}$ Nd, the sum of $^{143}$ Nd and $^{144}$ Nd, the sum of $^{145}$ Nd and $^{146}$ Nd, and the sum of total Nd isotopes($^{143}$ Nd, $^{144}$ Nd, $^{145}$ Nd, $^{146}$ Nd, $^{148}$ Nd and $^{150}$ Nd) monitors. The fractional($^{235}$ U) turnup in the spent fuel samples was also determined by U and Pu mass spectrometric method. The samples were dissolved in a mixture of 4 M HCI and 10 M HNO$_3$ without any catalyst. The separation of U, Pu and Nd from the spiked and unspiked sample solutions was achieved by two sequential anion exchange separation methods. The isotope compositions of these elements, after their separation from the fuel samples were measured by mass spectrometry. The contents of the elements in the spent fuel samples were determined by isotope dilution mass spectrometric method(IDMS) using $^{233}$ U, $^{242}$ Pu and $^{150}$ Nd as spikes. The effective fission yield was calculated from the weighted fission yields averaged over the irradiation period. The difference between total turnup values determined by various Nd monitors were in the range of 1.8%.