Radiation imaging of dry-storage casks for nuclear fuel

Abstract

We report the results of a measurement campaign conducted on six dry-storage, spent-nuclear-fuel storage casks at the Idaho National Laboratory. A gamma-ray imager, a thermal-neutron imager and a Ge-spectrometer were used to collect data. The campaign was conducted to examine the feasibility of using cask radiation signatures as unique identifiers for individual casks as part of a safeguards regime. The results clearly show different morphologies for the various cask types although the signatures are deemed insufficient to uniquely identify individual casks of the same type. Based on results with the Ge-spectrometer and differences between thermal neutron images and neutron-dose meters, this result is attributed to the limitations of the extant imagers used, rather than of the basic concept.