In-plant experience with passive-active shufflers at Los Alamos

Two Canberra-built passive-active {sup 252}Cf shufflers of Los Alamos hardware and software design have been installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, one at the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Facility at TA-3 and the other at the Plutonium Facility (PF-4) at TA-55. These instruments fulfill important safeguards and accountability measurement requirements for special nuclear material (SNM) in matrices too dense or otherwise not appropriate for typical gamma-ray or other neutron counting techniques. They support many programmatic requirements including measurements of transuranic (TRU) waste and inventory verification. This paper describes the instrument performance under plant conditions with various background radiations on well-characterized standards to determine long-term stability and establish a calibration. Results are also reported on verification measurements of previously unmeasured inventory items in various matrices and geometric distributions. Preliminary investigative measurements are presented on standards of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX).