Nondestructive Determination of Relative Plutonium Content in MOX Fuel Pins for Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors Using Passive Gamma Scanning

A conductivity-based technique is developed for the determination of Gd3+ in the heavy water moderators of pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The method involves monitoring extremely small shifts in conductivity, in the order of few nS/cm, due to the continuous addition of a suitable complexing agent to Gd3+ in aqueous medium. The resulting plot gives two distinct regions with vastly differing slopes. Two multidentate ligands, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaaceticacid (DTPA), as complexing agents are compared. A high performing conductivity detector based on a new class of sensors called pulsating sensors that works entirely in the digital domain is deployed to monitor the conductivity shifts. Titration plots are studied in both H2O and D2O, and the observed difference between the plots in the two matrices is discussed in detail. Boron did not interfere in the analysis. The method was validated using the UV–vis spectrophotometric technique. The method is sensitive and rapid, as each analysis takes 3 min. The limit of detection in H2O and D2O are 1.27×10−7 mol/L and 5.1×10−7 mol/L, respectively. The precision in analysis lies between 1.9% and 5.3%. This method has important application in the nuclear industry for the routine analysis of gadolinium.

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Non destructive determination of PuO2 content in MOX fuel pins for fast reactors using Passive Gamma Scanning

Journal of Nuclear Materials ◽

10.1016/j.jnucmat.2010.01.011 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 399 (1) ◽

pp. 122-127 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

K.V. Vrinda devi ◽

T. Soreng ◽

D. Mukherjee ◽

J.P. Panakkal ◽

H.S. Kamath

Keyword(s):

Fast Reactors ◽

Mox Fuel ◽

Non Destructive ◽

Gamma Scanning

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Experimental determination of thermal contact conductance between pressure and calandria tubes of Indian pressurised heavy water reactors

Nuclear Engineering and Design ◽

10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.11.025 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 284 ◽

pp. 60-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A.K. Dureja ◽

D.N. Pawaskar ◽

P. Seshu ◽

S.K. Sinha ◽

R.K. Sinha

Keyword(s):

Experimental Determination ◽

Heavy Water ◽

Thermal Contact ◽

Thermal Contact Conductance ◽

Contact Conductance ◽

Water Reactors

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Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor Technology: Its Relevance Today

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science ◽

10.1115/1.4035856 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

A. K. Nayak ◽

S. Banerjee

Keyword(s):

Heavy Water ◽

Fuel Cycle ◽

Substantial Improvement ◽

Natural Uranium ◽

Excellent Performance ◽

Water Reactor ◽

Reactor Technology ◽

Mox Fuel ◽

Heavy Water Reactor ◽

Water Reactors

The pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) technology was conceived in Canada and has moved to several nations for commercial production of electricity. Currently, 49 power reactors operate with PHWR technology producing nearly 25 GWe. The technology is flexible for adopting different fuel cycle options which include natural uranium, different mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, and thorium. The technology has made substantial improvement in materials, construction, and safety since its inception. PHWRs have demonstrated excellent performance historically. Their safety statistics are excellent. Indian PHWRs also have shown economic competitiveness even in small sizes, thus providing an ideal design for new entrants. While the technology features of PHWRs are available even in textbooks, the objective of this paper is to highlight the historical development and salient features, and innovations for further improvement in operation, safety and economics. Thus, this paper shall serve as a curtain raiser for the special issue “Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) Safety: Post Fukushima.”

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The technical promise and the needed capacity for burning weapons grade plutonium as MOX fuel in commercial light water reactors. Recycling military plutonium : a year of political progress

Bulletin de la Classe des sciences ◽

10.3406/barb.1995.27657 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 6 (7) ◽

pp. 307-318

Author(s):

André Louis Jaumotte ◽

Alain Michel

Keyword(s):

Light Water Reactors ◽

Light Water ◽

Mox Fuel ◽

Water Reactors ◽

Weapons Grade Plutonium

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Enhancement of a New Methodology Based on the Impulse Excitation Technique for the Nondestructive Determination of Local Material Properties in Composite Laminates

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11010101 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 101

Author(s):

Carlo Boursier Niutta

Keyword(s):

Resonant Frequency ◽

Elastic Properties ◽

Composite Laminates ◽

Concentrated Mass ◽

Modal Shape ◽

Nondestructive Determination ◽

Material Orientation ◽

Impulse Excitation ◽

Clamping System

A new approach for the nondestructive determination of the elastic properties of composite laminates is presented. The approach represents an improvement of a recently published experimental methodology based on the Impulse Excitation Technique, which allows nondestructively assessing local elastic properties of composite laminates by isolating a region of interest through a proper clamping system. Different measures of the first resonant frequency are obtained by rotating the clamping system with respect to the material orientation. Here, in order to increase the robustness of the inverse problem, which determines the elastic properties from the measured resonant frequencies, information related to the modal shape is retained by considering the effect of an additional concentrated mass on the first resonant frequency. According to the modal shape and the position of the mass, different values of the first resonant frequency are obtained. Here, two positions of the additional mass, i.e., two values of the resonant frequency in addition to the unloaded frequency value, are considered for each material orientation. A Rayleigh–Ritz formulation based on higher order theory is adopted to compute the first resonant frequency of the clamped plate with concentrated mass. The elastic properties are finally determined through an optimization problem that minimizes the discrepancy on the frequency reference values. The proposed approach is validated on several materials taken from the literature. Finally, advantages and possible limitations are discussed.

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