Coincidence measurements of FFTF breeder fuel subassemblies

A prototype coincidence counter developed to assay fast breeder reactor fuel was used to measure four fast-flux test facility subassemblies at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Plutonium contents in the four subassemblies ranged between 7.4 and 9.7 kg with corresponding /sup 240/Pu-effective contents between 0.9 and 1.2 kg. Large count rates were observed from the measurements, and plots of the data showed significant multiplication in the fuel. The measured data were corrected for deadtime and multiplication effects using established formulas. These corrections require accurate knowledge of the plutonium isotopics and /sup 241/Am content in the fuel. Multiplication-corrected coincidence count rates agreed with the expected count rates based on spontaneous fission-neutron emission rates. These measurements indicate that breeder fuel subassemblies with /sup 240/Pu-effective contents up to 1.2 kg can be nondestructively assayed using the shift-register electronics with the prototype counters. Measurements using the standard Los Alamos National Laboratory shift-register coincidence electronics unit can produce an assay value accurate to +-1% in 1000 s. The uncertainty results from counting statistics and deadtime-correction errors. 3 references, 8 figures, 8 tables.