First-of-a-kind muography for nuclear waste characterization

Mahon, D. , Clarkson, A., Gardner, S. , Ireland, D. , Jebali, R., Kaiser, R. , Ryan, M., Shearer, C. and Yang, G. (2018) First-of-a-kind muography for nuclear waste characterization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 377(2137), 20180048. (doi: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0048) (PMID:30530549)

Abstract

In the last decade, there has been a surge in the number of academic research groups and commercial companies exploiting naturally occurring cosmic-ray muons for imaging purposes in a range of industrial and geological applications. Since 2009, researchers at the University of Glasgow and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) have pioneered this technique for the characterization of shielded nuclear waste containers with significant investment from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd. Lynkeos Technology Ltd. was formed in 2016 to commercialize the Muon Imaging System (MIS) technology that resulted from this industry-funded academic research. The design, construction and performance of the Lynkeos MIS is presented along with first experimental and commercial results. The high-resolution images include the identification of small fragments of uranium within a surrogate 500-litre intermediate level waste container and metal inclusions within thermally treated GeoMelt® R&D Product Samples. The latter of these are from Lynkeos' first commercial contract with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. The Lynkeos MIS will be deployed at the NNL Central Laboratory facility on the Sellafield site in Summer 2018 where it will embark upon a series of industry trials.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Clarkson, Mr Anthony and Mahon, Dr David and Kaiser, Professor Ralf and Yang, Dr Guangliang and Shearer, Dr Craig and Gardner, Mr Simon and Ireland, Professor David and Ryan, Mr Matthew
• Authors: Mahon, D., Clarkson, A., Gardner, S., Ireland, D., Jebali, R., Kaiser, R., Ryan, M., Shearer, C., and Yang, G.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Publisher: Royal Society
• ISSN: 1364-503X
• ISSN (Online): 1471-2962