Nuclear Engineering ETDs
Publication Date
Spring 5-15-2024
Abstract
The International Atomic Energy Agency has acknowledged the need to “efficiently verify and maintain knowledge of spent fuel in shielding/storage/transport containers at all points in their life cycle”. Cosmic-ray muon scattering tomography has shown potential to create reconstruction images of dry cask contents that would be useful for in-situ verification of spent fuel within dry casks.
In this document, several muon scattering tomography reconstruction techniques are explored using experimental track data through a partially filled dry cask container and steel drum test object. Two three-dimensional reconstruction techniques, a backprojection and newly developed combined depth of field algorithm, are evaluated. The combined depth of field approach exhibited higher contrast between lead and surrounding low atomic number materials, even with significant data restrictions. This is vital for spent fuel verification applications where there is a need to quickly differentiate spent fuel from surrounding shielding components with limited muon collection rates.
Keywords
muon scatter tomography, spent fuel verification
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Degree Name
Nuclear Engineering
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Nuclear Engineering
First Committee Member (Chair)
Adam Hecht
Second Committee Member
Christopher Morris
Third Committee Member
Matthew Durham
Fourth Committee Member
Andrew Osbourne
Fifth Committee Member
Hank Lee
Recommended Citation
Valencia, Jesus J.. "DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF MUON SCATTERING TOMOGRAPHY RECONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES FOR SPENT FUEL VERIFICATION." (2024). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ne_etds/130
