A major concern with respect to spent fuel storage is the amount of heat that is generated bydecay products. In the context of repository design and operation, it is necessary to quantify theheat load entering the repository. The research presented here describes the dominant isotopesthat contribute to the decay heat and identifies which can be directly measured by means ofnondestructive assay (NDA). This research quantified the fraction of the heat term that can bedirectly measured by NDA for a range of initial enrichments, burnup and cooling times values;this was achieved by using the isotopic inventory of the spent fuel library created by the NextGeneration Safeguards Initiative (NGSI). The primary motivation for this work is to determinewhether NDA can provide rapid quantification of the heat term, particularly relative tocalorimetric methods. These detection systems would allow for the spent fuel assemblies toremain in storage pools because the systems could either be permanently installed in the pool ormanually lowered into position. This work is supported by the Next Generation SafeguardsInitiative, Office of Nuclear Safeguards and Security, National Nuclear Security Administration.
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