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Published: 1997

Total Pages: 29

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The minor actinide elements, particularly neptunium and americium, are produced as a normal byproduct of the operation of thermal power reactors. Because of the existence of long-lived isotopes of these elements, they constitute the major sources of the residual radiation in spent fuel or in wastes resulting from reprocessing. This has led to examinations by some countries of the possibility of separating the minor actinides from waste products. The papers found in this report address the production of minor actinides in common thermal power reactors as well as approaches to measure these materials in various media. The first paper in this volume, {open_quotes}Production of Minor Actinides in the Commercial Fuel Cycle, {close_quotes} uses calculations with the ORIGEN2 reactor and decay code to estimate the amounts of minor actinides in spent fuel and separated plutonium as a function of reactor irradiation and the time after discharge. The second paper, {open_quotes}Destructive Assay of Minor Actinides, {close_quotes} describes a number of promising approaches for the chemical analysis of minor actinides in the various forms in which they are found at reprocessing plants. The next paper, {open_quotes}Hybrid KED/XRF Measurement of Minor Actinides in Reprocessing Plants, {close_quotes} uses the results of a simulation model to examine the possible applications of the hybrid KED/XRF instrument to the determination of minor actinides in some of the solutions found in reprocessing plants. In {open_quotes}Calorimetric Assay of Minor Actinides, {close_quotes} the authors show some possible extensions of this powerful technique beyond the normal plutonium assays to include the minor actinides. Finally, the last paper in this volume, {open_quotes}Environment Measurements of Transuranic Nuclides, {close_quotes} discusses what is known about the levels of the minor actinides in the environment and ways to analyze for these materials in environmental matrices.