Cosmic Rays to Acoustics: Non-intrusive Monitoring for Nuclear Applications
- Nexia Solutions, H260 Hinton House, Risley, Warrington, WA6 3AS (United Kingdom)
The radioactive nature of the material handled during nuclear reprocessing or fuel manufacture often makes both process monitoring and process diagnostics most challenging. Fox example, quantifying material inside a radiation shielded storage vessel, locating sediment layers and the associated interfaces represents a difficult challenge. Alternatively, measuring the extent of sludge re-suspension and quantifying the amounts of sludge transferred during a sludge movement campaign also represents a re-occurring problem. Remote non-invasive process monitoring and imaging techniques are most applicable in the nuclear sector as they provide a means to monitor or image the given process, container or vessel allowing a remote interrogation whilst reducing operator dosage uptake. A number of currently used types of non-intrusive process monitoring and imaging techniques are discussed in this paper, each with their associated applications. Firstly, the use of (very) high energy naturally occurring cosmic ray muons for imaging the internal contents of large or radiation shielded vessels is discussed. Secondly, the use of non-invasive acoustic monitoring techniques to detect the presence of a gas-core inside a stirred vessel as well as the detection of flowing solids is described. Finally, the use of electrical resistance tomography for imaging the ease of sludge re-suspension in a storage vessel is also discussed. Within the UK Nuclear Sector, the use of non-invasive imaging and process monitoring techniques in recent years has shown a marked increase. Being able to 'see inside' the process represents a powerful tool allowing the quantification, location and characterisation of material whilst increasing the overall understanding of the given process providing significant safety, economical and operational benefits. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20979773
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems (GLOBAL 2007), Boise - Idaho (United States), 9-13 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 10 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2007 conference on advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems, 1873 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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