Measurement of gamma and neutron radiations inside spent fuel assemblies with passive detectors

During operation of a fission nuclear reactor, many radionuclides are generated in fuel by fission and activation of 235U, 238U and other nuclides present in the assembly. After removal of a fuel assembly from the core, these radionuclides are sources of different types of radiation. Gamma and neutron radiation emitted from an assembly can be non-destructively detected with different types of detectors. In this paper, a new method of measurement of radiation from a spent fuel assembly is presented. It is based on usage of passive detectors, such as alanine dosimeters for gamma radiation and track detectors for neutron radiation. Measurements are made on the IRT-2M spent fuel assemblies used in the LVR-15 research reactor. During irradiation of detectors, the fuel assembly is located in a water storage pool at a depth of 6m. Detectors are inserted into central hole of the assembly, irradiated for a defined time interval, and after the detectors removed from the assembly, gamma dose or neutron fluence are evaluated. Measured profiles of gamma dose rate and neutron fluence rate inside of the spent fuel assembly are presented. This measurement can be used to evaluate relative fuel burn-up.