Nuclear Waste Imaging and Spent Fuel Verification by Muon Tomography

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that muon tomography can effectively image nuclear waste and spent fuel in shielded containers, offering a non-invasive, real-time, and remotely monitorable method that surpasses current detection standards.

Contribution

It introduces a muon tracking technique for non-invasive nuclear waste characterization and spent fuel verification, improving accuracy and enabling real-time remote monitoring.

Findings

Muon tomography can detect high-Z nuclear materials inside shielded containers.

The method exceeds IAEA detection targets for nuclear material accountancy.

Potential for near real-time, unattended monitoring of nuclear waste and spent fuel.

Abstract

This paper explores the use of cosmic ray muons to image the contents of shielded containers and detect high-Z special nuclear materials inside them. Cosmic ray muons are a naturally occurring form of radiation, are highly penetrating and exhibit large scattering angles on high Z materials. Specifically, we investigated how radiographic and tomographic techniques can be effective for non-invasive nuclear waste characterization and for nuclear material accountancy of spent fuel inside dry storage containers. We show that the tracking of individual muons, as they enter and exit a structure, can potentially improve the accuracy and availability of data on nuclear waste and the contents of Dry Storage Containers (DSC) used for spent fuel storage at CANDU plants. This could be achieved in near real time, with the potential for unattended and remotely monitored operations. We show that the expected sensitivity, in the case of the DSC, exceeds the IAEA detection target for nuclear material accountancy.