1. Non-destructive nuclear measurement: need and motivation

1.1 Nuclear fuel cycle

This refers to all the operations involved in producing fuel and managing it once it has been irradiated and removed from the nuclear reactor. A closed cycle is used when irradiated fuel is reprocessed, and an open cycle when it is not.

Figure 1 shows the main stages in the fuel cycle in schematic form. These are mainly extraction, conversion, enrichment, fabrication and finally reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the case of a closed cycle, and direct storage in the case of an open cycle ( Instrumentation for monitoring nuclear materials).

The vast majority of radioactive waste is produced throughout...