Applying fast calorimetry on a spent nuclear fuel calorimeter
- Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management (Sweden); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
Recently at Los Alamos National Laboratory, sophisticated prediction algorithms have been considered for the use of calorimetry for treaty verification. These algorithms aim to predict the equilibrium temperature based on early data and therefore be able to shorten the measurement time while maintaining good accuracy. The algorithms have been implemented in MATLAB and applied on existing equilibrium measurements from a spent nuclear fuel calorimeter located at the Swedish nuclear fuel interim storage facility. The results show significant improvements in measurement time in the order of 15 to 50 compared to equilibrium measurements, but cannot predict the heat accurately in less time than the currently used temperature increase method can. This Is both due to uncertainties in the calibration of the method as well as identified design features of the calorimeter that limits the usefulness of equilibrium type measurements. The conclusions of these findings are discussed, and suggestions of both improvements of the current calorimeter as well as what to keep in mind in a new design are given.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1178323
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-15-22741; TRN: US1500381
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
SPENT FUELS
CALORIMETERS
ALGORITHMS
EQUILIBRIUM
SWEDEN
WASTE STORAGE
CALORIMETRY
DESIGN
AFTER-HEAT
ACCURACY
CALIBRATION