Monitoring and Control of Urex Radiochemical Processes

Conference · Sun Sep 09 04:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:1013952

Bryan, Samuel A. ^[1]; Levitskaia, Tatiana G. ^[1]

---

1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

There is urgent need for methods to provide on-line monitoring and control of the radiochemical processes that are currently being developed and demonstrated under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) initiative. The methods used to monitor these processes must be robust (require little or no maintenance) and must be able to withstand harsh environments (e.g., high radiation fields and aggressive chemical matrices). The ability for continuous online monitoring allows the following benefits: Accountability of the fissile materials, Control of the process flowsheet, Information on flow parameters, solution composition, and chemical speciation, Enhanced performance by eliminating the need for traditional analytical “grab samples”, Improvement of operational and criticality safety, Elimination of human error. The objective of our project is to use a system of flow, chemical composition, and physical property measurement techniques for developing on-line real-time monitoring systems for the UREX process streams. We will use our past experience in adapting and deploying Raman spectrometer combined with Coriolis meters and conductivity probes in developing a deployable prototype monitor for the UREX radiochemical streams. This system will be augmented with UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer. Flow, temperature, density, and chemical composition and concentration measurements will be combined for real-time data analysis during processing. Currently emphasis of our research is placed on evaluation of the commercial instrumentation for the UREX flowsheet.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1013952
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-56050; AF5805000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CRITICALITY
Conductivity Probes
Coriolis Meters
DATA ANALYSIS
EVALUATION
Evaluation
FISSILE MATERIALS
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)
MAINTENANCE
MATRICES
METERS
MONITORING
MONITORS
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR FUELS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
On-Line Monitoring
PERFORMANCE
PROBES
PROCESSING
RADIATIONS
Radiochemical Processes Control
Raman Spectrometer
Real-Time Data Analysis
Real-Time Monitoring Systems
SAFETY
SPECTROMETERS
UREX Flowsheet Commercial Instrumentation