Identification of the fuel parts of research reactors

Abstract

It is proposed that a database on the characteristics of research reactor fuel be constructed. This database will permit determining the unknown fuel and the unknown parts of the core. Arduous and precision methods are not needed to identify the fuel parts of pulsed reactors. Inspection and measurements of the geometric dimensions are sufficient in most cases. If a fuel part of a reactor is destroyed and has been converted to scrap, then the enrichment of the fuel, the isotopic composition of the uranium, and the impurity composition must be measured, although even this does not always solve the problem. Consequently, the selection and validation of the identifying indications must be the subject of special investigations.In the last few years the law-enforcement organs in the states formed after the collapse of the USSR and in the European Union have encountered more frequent cases of illegal circulation of nuclear materials. About 500 cases of smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials have been recorded during the last decade in IAEA's database [1]. Approximately half of the materials confiscated consists of fissile materials -plutonium and enriched uranium, low-enrichment uranium (one-third of the cases), and initial materials (thorium and natural uranium). To fight the illegal circulation of nuclear materials and to obtain the required proofs for detaining the violator, the unknown fuel must be identified in order to determine where it was produced and stolen and what its intended use is.In the identification process, many parameters must be determined and compared with accessible information on the characteristics of the fuel parts of reactors. For this reason, an information database containing design, technological, and materials science characteristics of domestic and foreign nuclear reactors could be a useful tool for research and design purposes and for law-enforcement applications. Rosatom and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC), specifically, the A. A. Bochvar

Possibility of identifying the fuel elements and fuel assemblies of first-generation USA and USSR research reactors

“…For reliable identification, specialists at the All-Russia Research Institute of Technical Physics (VNIITF) are creating a database on the characteristics of all research reactors, both past and present, in the world. This database will make it possible to identify unknown fuel and unknown fuel elements and assemblies (fuel components) from reactor cores [3]. The IAEA database on research reactors contains almost no information on the fuel and design of fuel elements and cannot be used for identification.…”

“…The possibilities for identifying fuel components of certain reactors are described in [3][4][5]. Thus, in most cases identification can be accomplished by visual examination and measuring the geometric dimensions of whole fuel elements and assemblies.…”