Evaluation of Nondestructive Assay/Nondestructive Examination Capabilities for Department of Energy Spent Nuclear Fuel

This report summarizes an evaluation of the potential use of nondestructive assay (NDA) and nondestructive examination (NDE) technologies on DOE spent nuclear fuel (SNF). It presents the NDA/NDE information necessary for the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program (NSNFP) and the SNF storage sites to use when defining that role, if any, of NDA/NDE in characterization and certification processes. Note that the potential role for NDA/NDE includes confirmatory testing on a sampling basis and is not restricted to use as a primary, item-specific, data collection method. The evaluation does not attempt to serve as a basis for selecting systems for development or deployment. Information was collected on 27 systems being developed at eight DOE locations. The systems considered are developed to some degree, but are not ready for deployment on the full range of DOE SNF and still require additional development. The system development may only involve demonstrating performance on additional SNF, packaging the system for deployment, and developing calibration standards, or it may be as extensive as performing additional basic research. Development time is considered to range from one to four years. We conclude that NDA/NDE systems are capable of playing a key role in the characterization and certification of DOE SNF, either as the primary data source or as a confirmatory test. NDA/NDE systems will be able to measure seven of the nine key SNF properties and to derive data for the two key properties not measured directly. The anticipated performance goals of these key properties are considered achievable except for enrichment measurements on fuels near 20% enrichment. NDA/NDE systems can likely be developed to measure the standard canisters now being considered for co-disposal of DOE SNF. This ability would allow the preparation of DOE SNF for storage now and the characterization and certification to be finalize later