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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Latest News
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Jesson Hutchinson, Timothy Valentine
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 161 | Number 3 | March 2009 | Pages 357-362
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE161-357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Subcritical measurements were conducted with an alpha-phase plutonium sphere using the 252Cf source-driven noise analysis method. Measurements were performed with both polyethylene and acrylic reflectors. For each reflector type, five different reflector thicknesses were investigated: 0 (bare), 1.27, 2.54, 3.81, and 7.62 cm. A certain ratio of spectral quantities that depends on the fluctuations in the fission chain multiplication process was measured for each configuration. In addition, two types of Monte Carlo calculations were employed to estimate the keff and spectral ratio values of each configuration. From the measured and computed quantities, the multiplication and uncertainty of the system can be inferred. The polyethylene measurements compared well to previous measurements conducted with the same plutonium sphere and polyethylene reflector thicknesses. The acrylic measurements provide benchmark data of an alpha-phase plutonium sphere reflected by acrylic.