Water Bath and Air Bath Calorimeter Qualification for Measuring 3013 Containers of Plutonium Oxide at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP).

Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

关键词: Calorimeters;    Containers;    Plutonium oxides;    Measurement;    Thermal conductivity;   

RP-ID  :  DE2003812313

学科分类：工程和技术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: National Technical Reports Library

【 摘 要 】

The purpose of this paper is to present qualification data generated from water and air-bath calorimeters measuring radioactive decay heat from plutonium oxide in DOE STD-3013- 2000 (3013) containers at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP). Published data concerning air and water bath calorimeters and especially 3013-qualified calorimeters is minimal at best. This paper will address the data from the measurement/qualification test plan, the heat standards used, and the calorimeter precision and accuracy results. The 3013 package is physically larger than earlier plutonium oxide storage containers, thereby necessitating a larger measurement chamber. To accommodate the measurements of the 3013 containers at PFP, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supplied a water bath dual-chambered unit and the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) provided two air-bath calorimeters. Both types of Calorimeters were installed in the analytical laboratory at PFP. The larger 3013 containers presented a new set of potential measurement problems: longer counting times, heat conductivity through a much larger container mass and wall thickness, and larger amounts of copper shot to assist sample thermal conductivity. These potential problems were addressed and included in the measurement/qualification test plan.