Interaction of cosmic ray muons with spent nuclear fuel dry casks and determination of lower detection limit

Chatzidakis, Stylianos; Choi, Chan Young; Tsoukalas, Lefteri H.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2016.03.084

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Simulations with 10 6 muons with energy in the range 1-60 GeV result in scattering variance estimates for a vertical fully loaded dry cask, a half loaded and an empty one are 4119.453, 2792.103 and 1493.074 mrad 2 , respectively. The scattering variance distribution is shown to follow Gamma distribution and its moments can be derived as shown in [30]. Then, using…”

Section: A Muon-dry Cask Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

Chatzidakis

Choi

Tsoukalas

2016

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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Cosmic ray muons passing through matter lose energy from inelastic collisions with electrons and are deflected from nuclei due to multiple Coulomb scattering. The strong dependence of scattering on atomic number Z and the recent developments on position sensitive muon detectors indicate that multiple Coulomb scattering could be an excellent candidate for spent nuclear fuel imaging. Muons present significant advantages over existing monitoring and imaging techniques and can play a central role in monitoring nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel stored in dense well shielded containers. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of multiple Coulomb scattering for imaging of spent nuclear fuel dry casks stored within vertical and horizontal commercial storage dry casks. Calculations of muon scattering were performed for various scenarios, including vertical and horizontal fully loaded dry casks, half loaded dry casks, dry casks with one row of fuel assemblies missing, dry casks with one fuel assembly missing and empty dry casks. Various detector sizes (1.2 m x 1.2 m, 2.4 m x 2.4 m and 3.6 m x 3.6 m) and number of muons (10 5 , 5·10 5 , 10 6 and 10 7 ) were used to assess the effect on image resolution. The Point-of-Closest-Approach (PoCA) algorithm was used for the reconstruction of the stored contents. The results demonstrate that multiple Coulomb scattering can be used to successfully reconstruct the dry cask contents and allow identification of all scenarios with the exception of one fuel assembly missing. In this case, an indication exists that a fuel assembly is not present; however the resolution of the imaging algorithm was not enough to identify exact location.*Corresponding author: schatzid@purdue.edu I. INTRODUCTIONSince the pioneering work of E.P. George [1] and L. Alvarez [2], relativistic muons have been shown to have the ability to penetrate dense materials and by monitoring the subsequent scattering and/or attenuation of muons, a measurable signal about the structure and composition of the interrogated material can be obtained [3]. Recently, cosmic ray muons have been investigated for volcano imaging and cargo scanning applications and their use has been extended to nuclear waste imaging and determination of molten nuclear fuel location in nuclear reactors having suffered from the effects of a severe accident similar to the one happened in Fukushima [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].Earlier muon radiographic techniques were based on attenuation principles. A new promising method based on multiple Coulomb scattering was developed and demonstrated at LANL for detection of high-Z materials hidden in a large volume of low-Z materials, a situation representative of shielded material shielded hidden in a cargo container [24,25]. It was suggested that muon momentum measurement which can be achieved by indirectly measuring muon scattering in several layers of materials with known thickness could improve image resolution.This was later demonstrate...

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Section: A Muon-dry Cask Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

Chatzidakis

Choi

Tsoukalas

2016

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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“…Recently, the use of muons in nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards verification applications has received attention as a passive and penetrating way to interrogate objects. This endeavor has been assisted by the development of detectors that can measure and provide information related to the incoming and outgoing trajectories of individual muons [2][3][4][5][6]. Recently, cosmic ray muons have been investigated for volcano imaging [7][8][9] and cargo scanning applications [10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, cosmic ray muons have been investigated for volcano imaging [7][8][9] and cargo scanning applications [10][11][12]. Their use has been extended to nuclear waste imaging [13][14][15][16] and determination of nuclear fuel debris location in nuclear reactors having suffered from the effects of a severe accident such as the one that occurred in Fukushima [17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The estimated muon path asymptotically approaches the incoming and outgoing muon trajectories. The algorithm was tested under various scenarios using detailed Geant4 Monte Carlo [15,21,26] simulations. It is hypothesized that the proposed generalized muon trajectory estimation (GMTE) algorithm will produce muon tomographic images with improved quality and reduced noise, requiring fewer muons than the muon reconstruction techniques that are currently available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A generalized muon trajectory estimation algorithm with energy loss for application to muon tomography

Chatzidakis

Liu

Hayward

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Physics

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This work presents a generalized muon trajectory estimation (GMTE) algorithm to estimate the path of a muon in either uniform or nonuniform media. The use of cosmic ray muons in nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards verification applications has recently gained attention due to the non-intrusive and passive nature of the inspection, penetrating capabilities, as well as recent advances in detectors that measure position and direction of the individual muons before and after traversing the imaged object. However, muon image reconstruction techniques are limited in resolution due to low muon flux and the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS). Current reconstruction algorithms, e.g., point of closest approach (PoCA) or straight-line path (SLP), rely on overly simple assumptions for muon path estimation through the imaged object. For robust muon tomography, efficient and flexible physics-based algorithms are needed to model the MCS process and accurately estimate the most probable trajectory of a muon as it traverses an object. In the present work, the use of a Bayesian framework and a Gaussian approximation of MCS are explored for estimation of the most likely path of a cosmic ray muon traversing uniform or nonuniform media and undergoing MCS. The algorithm's precision is compared to Monte Carlo simulated muon trajectories. It was found that the algorithm is expected to be able to predict muon tracks to less than 1.5 mm RMS for 0.5 GeV muons and 0.25 mm RMS for 3 GeV muons, a 50% improvement compared to SLP and 15% improvement when compared to PoCA. Further, a 30% increase in useful muon flux was observed relative to PoCA. Muon track prediction improved for higher muon energies or smaller penetration depth where energy loss is not significant. The effect of energy loss due to ionization is investigated, and a linear energy loss relation that is easy to use is proposed.

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“…Conventional active radiography with neutrons or photons is not feasible due to the heavy shielding that is used to contain the radiation emitted by the fuel, as well as self-shielding from the fuel assemblies themselves, which can total over 100 radiation lengths for typical casks [14]. Previous work showed that measurements of radiation which escapes the cask are capable of proving that the cask has radioactive contents, but the scattered radiation which emerges does not carry sufficient radiographic information to determine if individual assemblies are missing [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering

et al. 2018

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Most of the plutonium in the world resides inside spent nuclear reactor fuel rods. This highlevel radioactive waste is commonly held in long-term storage within large, heavily shielded casks. Currently, international nuclear safeguards inspectors have no stand-alone method of verifying the amount of reactor fuel stored within a sealed cask. Here we demonstrate experimentally that measurements of the scattering angles of cosmic ray muons which pass through a storage cask can be used to determine if spent fuel assemblies are missing without opening the cask. This application of technology and methods commonly used in high-energy particle physics provides a potential solution to this long-standing problem in international nuclear safeguards.

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Interaction of cosmic ray muons with spent nuclear fuel dry casks and determination of lower detection limit

Cited by 28 publications

References 17 publications

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

A generalized muon trajectory estimation algorithm with energy loss for application to muon tomography

Verification of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Sealed Dry Storage Casks via Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Muon Scattering

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