Speaker
Description
The need for more stable, low-carbon energy sources is driving the construction of new nuclear reactors around the world. This also increases the production of nuclear waste, which must be stored and monitored for safety reasons.
At CEA-IRFU, Micromegas detectors, designed for high-energy physics, are used to study the application of muon tomography in the nuclear field. Studies have focused on multiple aspects of the nuclear industry, ranging from the examination of entire power plants to waste management. Different reconstruction techniques are used. Transmission muography has been used to reconstruct the G2/G3 nuclear reactors being dismantled at CEA-Marcoule, as well as to monitor water level variations in the steam generators of an active pressurized water reactor. This allows for the inspection of the plant in an accident situation without prior knowledge of these levels. Scattering muography is used to inspect different types of nuclear waste containers at their storage sites. Recently, machine learning architectures and statistical filters have been applied, which have helped improve the reconstructed images.