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An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt, James E. Bevins, Stephen H. Baxter Feb 2021

An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt, James E. Bevins, Stephen H. Baxter

Faculty Publications

A 3-D Quarter-Core CANDU-6 is modeled using Serpent 2 for nuclear treaty monitoring. The spatial variation of flux spectra and isotopic concentrations is analyzed to determine the potential isotopic distribution of key radionuclides from standard reactor operations relevant to non-proliferation. The initial results of the model show a 46% difference in overall flux magnitude throughout the core as well as a 2-30% difference in discrete energy flux. The coupled production rate (magnitude) and spectral differences can contribute to significant spatial variations in isotope ratios throughout the core. Initial results indicate 239 Pu/ 240 Pu ratios vary by as much as …


An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu-6 Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt Mar 2020

An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu-6 Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt

Theses and Dissertations

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization developed the International Monitoring System for monitoring for nuclear explosive testing and compliance with nuclear treaties. Many of the International Monitoring System stations are capable of detecting radionuclides that can be used to determine their origin and creation environment. However, there is not a single unique signature associated with each creation environment. Nuclear reactors, for example, can have a wide range of isotopic concentrations caused by spatial variations in neutron flux intensity and energy. As a single sample only provides a single isotopic measurement, this can make disambiguation difficult …