Microfluidic Alpha Spectrometry of UOX PWR UNF in a Molten Salt

This paper presents the computational performance of microfluidic channels (MFCs) within a semiconductor detector to monitor changes in the elemental and isotopic composition of a UOX pressurized water reactor used nuclear fuel dissolved in a KCl/LiCl molten salt. The results indicate that the use of MFC limits alpha energy loss sufficiently enough to use energy windowing techniques in spectral analysis. It was found that elemental and isotopic changes as low as 1% may be feasible, with the time to detection (TTD) ranging from seconds to hours. The TTD is inversely dependent on the number of MFCs within the sensor and the activity of the element/isotope undergoing concentration transients.