Award-Winning System Assays Radiation Waste With Radiation

Roberson, G.P.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

关键词: Radioactivity;    Computerized Tomography;    Storage;    99 General And Miscellaneous//Mathematics, Computing, And Information Science;    Radioactive Wastes;   

DOI  :  10.2172/793576
RP-ID  :  UCRL-ID-139572
RP-ID  :  W-7405-Eng-48
RP-ID  :  793576

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

More than half a million drums of radioactive waste are stored at 30 Department of Energy sites across the nation, with thousands more to come as facilities at weapons complex sites are dismantled. All of these drums must be assayed to determine and verify their contents and levels of radioactivity so they can be transported for permanent storage or disposal. A system that assays containers of radioactive waste safely, accurately, and nonintrusively has garnered a prestigious R and D 100 Award--presented annually by R and D Magazine to ''the 100 most technologically significant new products and processes of the year''--for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and its commercial partner, Bio-Imaging Research, Inc. (BIR) from Lincolnshire, Illinois. The award-winning Waste Inspection Tomography for Non-Destructive Assay (WIT-NDA) system was developed by a team of engineers and physicists headed by Livermore's Patrick Roberson and Harry Martz. The system combines active and passive computed tomography and nuclear spectroscopy to accurately quantify all detectable gamma rays emitted from waste containers. The WIT-NDA is part of BIR's Waste Inspection Tomography system, which provides nondestructive examination and assay of radioactive waste and has been commercially available since August 1999. ''The WIT-NDA is an excellent example of successful technology transfer between a DOE national laboratory and a small private business'', says Richard Bernardi, WIT program manager for BIR.