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Undeclared uranium hitches a ride on cobalt exports from Congo, study says
Philippe (left) and Manzuk quantified the amount of uranium that has been exported from the DRC in cobalt shipments or left behind in the environment. (Photo: Joel Hallberg/UW–Madison)
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Princeton University have published a study in Nature Communications that calls attention to a blind spot in nuclear nonproliferation: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has exported thousands of metric tons of uranium, and there is no accounting for where it has gone.
In partnership with Lighthouse Reports and the Financial Times, UW–Madison nuclear engineering professor and nuclear security expert Sébastien Philippe and Ryan Manzuk, a geologist and research fellow in Philippe’s group and at Princeton, conducted the study using countrywide mineralization and geochemical data.
Lucas P. Tucker, Shoaib Usman, Ayodeji Alajo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 194 | Number 1 | April 2016 | Pages 97-110
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-67
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Missouri University of Science and Technology Subcritical Assembly has been brought back into service and upgraded with a new neutron detection system and Internet accessibility. Before the upgrade, neutron counting was possible in only one location. Using a movable detection system housed in acrylic tubes, measurements can now be taken in any empty fuel location and at any height within the tube, making three-dimensional flux mapping possible. By connecting the new detection system to a Canberra Lynx Digital Signal Analyzer, remote users can have limited data-collecting capabilities. To further enhance the potential of the facility, a Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code (MCNP) model of the subcritical assembly was created and validated by comparing its simulated predictions to experiments conducted at the facility. An approach to the criticality experiment using the 1/M approximation showed that the MCNP model accurately predicts keff if the detectors are placed between 27 and 36 cm from the neutron source. The results of an axial flux measurement experiment taken 20.3 cm from the neutron source differed from the MCNP-simulated results by an average of 12%. Finally, the validated MCNP model was used to show the effect of removing the facility’s fixed detector tube and redistributing its fuel. MCNP simulation predicts that the new configuration would increase the multiplication factor from 0.73481 ± 0.00008 to 0.76844 ± 0.00004.
