MuTomCa

The international MUTOMCA (MUon TOMography for shielding CAsks) project is investigating the suitability of muon tomography—a non-invasive and non-destructive imaging method—for the re-inspection of loaded CASTOR® containers for spent nuclear fuel. These are stored in special interim storage facilities under constant monitoring by international regulatory authorities using monitoring equipment. In the hypothetical event of a temporary failure of these instruments, which would result in a loss of monitoring continuity, a re-inspection of the spent fuel elements would be necessary to comply with international safeguards. The project aims to demonstrate the suitability of muon tomography for distinguishing between dummy elements and spent fuel elements based on their different densities. To this end, a detector system was designed, developed, built, and installed for a field test in Grafenrheinfeld (operated by BGZ). The test examined two CASTOR® V/19 containers: one with a mixed configuration of dummy fuel elements and spent fuel elements, and one containing only spent fuel elements. This was the first reconstruction of real data using muon tomography conducted at an interim storage facility.

The project is an international collaboration between the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN; Italy), Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH (BGZ), and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).