Engineering Papers⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Bledsoe, Keith C

Publications and source records attributed to Bledsoe, Keith C.

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Uncertainty Quantification for Quantitative Imaging Holdup Measurements

In nuclear fuel cycle safeguards, special nuclear material "held up" in pipes, ducts, and glove boxes causes significant uncertainty in material-unaccounted-for estimates. Quantitative imaging is a proposed non-destructive assay technique with potential to estimate the holdup mass more accurately and reliably than current techniques. However, uncertainty analysis for quantitative imaging remains a significant challenge. In this work we demonstrate an analysis approach for data acquired with a fast-neutron coded aperture imager. The work includes a calibrated forward model of the imager. Cross-validation indicates that the forward model predicts the imager data typically within 23%; further improvements are forthcoming. A new algorithm based on the chi-squared goodness-of-fit metric then uses the forward model to calculate a holdup confidence interval. The new algorithm removes geometry approximations that previous methods require, making it a more reliable uncertainty estimator.

holdup measurement↗