Speaker
Description
With the projected increase in world nuclear capacity comes the hurdle of spent nuclear fuel. Pyroprocessing is one method to process irradiated fuel by using high temperatures and electrochemical steps to separate radioactive components of interest. High temperatures, high radiation levels, and equipment confined to a heavily shielded hot cell are a few of the challenges introduced regarding safeguards for pyroprocessing. The first stage of the process utilizes an element chopper to cut irradiated fuel into smaller pieces, offering the potential to identify equipment operation through seismoacoustic monitoring. Seismic and infrasound sensors were deployed at various locations and distances near a pyroprocessing hot cell to evaluate signals emitted from the chopper. Signals were processed using short-time Fourier transforms and visually scanned to locate chopping events. Operator logs were then collected for ground truth comparison. Results indicate that both infrasound and seismic signals offer the ability to accurately measure this stage of pyroprocessing, though seismic signals are more prominent. This type of monitoring offers a method to aid in safeguards by validating a pyroprocessing facility’s schedule and identifying activity that does not align with records.
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