CMR Shuffler System: Passive Mode Calibration and Certification Report

Frame, Katherine C.¹  Gomez, Cipriano D.²  Salazar, William R.¹  Mayo, Douglas R.¹  Vigil, Georgiana M.¹  Crooks, William J.¹  Stange, Sy¹ 

[1] Los Alamos National Laboratory;Retired CMR-OPS: OPERATIONS

关键词: CALIBRATION;    CONFINEMENT;    CONTAMINATION;    LANL;    NEUTRONS;    OXIDES;    SAFEGUARDS;    STEELS;    TESTING;    WASTES;    WEAPONS;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1047091
RP-ID  :  LA-UR-12-23255
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1047091
Others  :  TRN: US1203968

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Los Alamos National Laboratory has a number of spherical confinement vessels (CVs) remaining from tests involving nuclear materials. These vessels have an inner diameter of 6 feet with 1 to 2 inch thick steel walls. The goal of the Confinement Vessel Disposition (CVD) project is to remove debris and reduce contamination inside the vessels. As debris is removed from the vessels, material will be placed in waste drums. Far-field gamma ray assay will be used to determine when a drum is nearing a {sup 239}Pu equivalent mass of less than 200 g. The drum will then be assayed using a waste drum shuffler operated in passive mode using a neutron coincidence counting method for accountability. This report focuses on the testing and calibration of the CMR waste drum shuffler in passive mode operation. Initial testing was performed to confirm previously accepted measurement parameters. The system was then calibrated using a set of weapons grade Pu (WGPu, {sup 239}Pu > 93%) oxide standards placed inside a 55 gallon drum. The calibration data ranges from Pu mass of 0.5 g to 188.9 g. The CMR waste drum shuffler has been tested and calibrated in passive mode in preparation for safeguards accountability measurements of waste drums containing material removed from CVs for the CVD project.