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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
Thomas V. Holschuh, Wade R. Marcum
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 3 | March 2020 | Pages 428-434
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1640515
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recently, techniques for qualitative inspections of spent fuel using Cherenkov light have advanced the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ability to perform defect verification measurements following discharge of the fuel from the reactor. Unfortunately, these measurements are limited in their value for safeguards and nuclear material accountancy since they do not quantify the fissile material quantities and cannot characterize a reactor during operations. The Cherenkov Radiation Assay for Nuclear Kinetics (CRANK) system has been devised to quantify the fissile material in the Oregon State TRIGA Reactor (OSTR) during two or more reactor pulses through the measurement of Cherenkov light. The results from the OSTR experiments have shown that the CRANK system is capable of determining the ratio of reactor kinetics parameters (RKP) through the measurement of Cherenkov light in an assay of a research reactor capable of pulsing. There exists excellent agreement between the declared value of the RKP ratio in the OSTR Final Safety Analysis Report and four separate reactor pulse comparisons using the CRANK system. Future applications of the CRANK system can provide independent determination of a pulsing research reactor with an unknown RKP ratio.