A monitor solution to characterize a fissile material in a glove box

摘要

Handling fissionable material requires special know-how in managing irradiation and contamination risks while controlling any potential chain reaction, i.e. maintaining sub-criticality. If the risks associated with cleanup and dismantling operations had to be ranked in order of seriousness, keeping control of sub-criticality would probably be number one. The control modes for sub-criticality management are often reduced to the measurement of the fissile mass. This subject represents an opportunity for the development of fissile material mass control. More precisely, D&D operations require the design and deployment of innovative ways to ensure accurate measurement of the mass of fissile material in a hostile environment. The technical proposal described in this document is based on gamma spectrometry applied to the characterization of fissile material holdup in a glove box. Gamma spectrometry is adapted to monitoring the evolution of the main radionuclides: ~(241)Am and ~(241)Pu. The work has confirmed that detectors equipped with CdZnTe crystals are devices which are well-adapted to on-line monitoring of glove box cleanup.