  Muon radiography is a fast growing field in applied scientific research. In
recent years, many detector technologies and imaging techniques using the
Coulomb scattering and absorption properties of cosmic-ray muons have been
developed for the non-destructive assay of various structures across a wide
range of applications. This work presents the first results that assess the
feasibility of using muons to interrogate waste silos within the UK Nuclear
Industry. Two such approaches, using different techniques that exploit each of
these properties, have previously been published, and show promising results
from both simulation and experimental data for the detection of shielded high-Z
materials and density variations from volcanic assay. Both detector systems are
based on scintillator and photomultiplier technologies. Results from dedicated
simulation studies using both these technologies and image reconstruction
techniques are presented for an intermediate-sized nuclear waste storage
facility filled with concrete and an array of uranium samples. Both results
highlight the potential to identify uranium objects of varying thicknesses
greater than 5cm within real-time durations of several weeks. Increased
contributions from Coulomb scattering within the concrete of the structure
hinder the ability of both approaches to resolve objects of 2cm dimensions even
with increased statistics. These results are all dependent on both the position
of the objects within the facility and the locations of the detectors. Results
for differing thicknesses of concrete, which reflect the unknown composition of
the structures under interrogation, are also presented alongside studies
performed for a series of data collection durations. It is anticipated that
with further research, muon radiography in one, or both of these forms, will
play a key role in future industrial applications within the UK Nuclear
Industry.
