Post-Irradiation Neutron Emissions From CANDU® Fuels And Their Nuclear Forensics Applications

Abstract

Fissile materials within a fuel pellet can be discerned rapidly and non-destructively via the analysis of post-irradiation particle emissions. Delayed neutron and gamma counting techniques are already established within the nuclear industry, and include the detection of defective CANDU® fuel. This work discusses these particle emissions from CANDU® fuel in the context of nuclear forensics. Monte-carlo simulations of these emissions from current and proposed CANDU® fuels (thoria and mix oxide based) were performed. These simulations were compared to measurements of delayed particle emissions from uranium-233, uranium-235 and plutonium-239 and the feasibility of CANDU® fuel attribution is discussed.