Photofission for the detection of actinides

Nuclear waste management cost at CEA is a heavy budget share. Therefore, it is important, in order to minimize that cost, to select the most suitable repository for the waste. Significant cost savings are obtained, for example, whenever a medium activity waste drum initially filed to end up in a geological repository can be measured accurately enough to be accepted by the Centre de Stockage de l’Aube (CSA). Photofission can be used as a non-destructive technique to measure the actinide content embedded in a nuclear waste drum. It can even be applied when the waste is packaged in its heavy concrete shielding. It is equally sensitive to non-fissile nuclear material. However, the present state of art suffers from a lack of sensitivity to be able to help redirecting the waste to the proper repository. A new program called INPHO is proposed at CEA Saclay aiming at enhancing the sensitivity sufficiently to be applicable for waste characterization.