Calibration of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Passive-Active Neutron Drum Shuffler for Measurement of Highly Enriched Uranium in Oxides within DOE-STD-3013-2000 Containers

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses the LLNL passive-active neutron drum (PAN) shuffler (Canberra Model JCC-92) for accountability measurement of highly enriched uranium (HEU) oxide and HEU in mixed uranium-plutonium (U-Pu) oxide. In June 2002, at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Material Management, LLNL reported on an extensive effort to calibrate this shuffler, based on standards measurements and extensive simulations, for HEU oxides and mixed U-Pu oxides in thin-walled primary and secondary containers. In August 2002, LLNL began to also use DOE-STD-3013-2000 containers for HEU oxide and mixed U-Pu oxide. These DOE-STD-3013-2000 containers are comprised of a stainless steel convenience can enclosed in welded stainless steel primary and secondary containers. Compared to the double thin-walled containers, the DOE-STD-3013-2000 containers have substantially thicker walls, and the density of materials in these containers was found to extend over a greater range (1.35 g/cm{sup 3} to 4.62 g/cm{sup 3}) than foreseen for the double thin-walled containers. Further, the DOE-STD-3013-2000 Standard allows for oxides containing at least 30 wt% Pu plus U whereas the calibration algorithms for thin-walled containers were derived for virtually pure HEU or mixed U-Pu oxides. An initial series of Monte Carlo simulations of the PAN shuffler response to given quantities of HEU oxide and mixed U-Pu oxide in DOE-STD-3013-2000 containers was generated and compared with the response predicted by the calibration algorithms for thin-walled containers. Results showed a decrease on the order of 10% in the count rate, and hence a decrease in the calculated U mass for measured unknowns, with some varying trends versus U mass. Therefore a decision was made to develop a calibration algorithm for the PAN shuffler unique to the DOE-STD-3013-2000 container. This paper describes that effort and selected unknown item measurement results