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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

On-line monitoring of toxic materials in sewage at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5488129
It is becoming increasingly important for industry to prevent releases of potentially toxic material to the environment. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has developed a system to monitor its sewage effluent on a continuous basis. A representative fraction of the total waste stream leaving the Plant is passed through a detection assembly consisting of an x-ray fluorescence unit which detects high levels of metals, sodium iodide crystal detectors that scan the sewage for the presence of elevated levels of radiation, and an industrial probe for pH monitoring. With the aid of a microprocessor, the data collected is reduced and analyzed to determine whether levels are approaching established environmental limits. Currently, if preset pH or radiation levels are exceeded, a sample of the suspect sewage is automatically collected for further analysis, and an alarm is sent to a station where personnel can be alerted to respond on a 24-hour basis. In the same manner, spectral data from the x-ray fluorescence unit will be routed through the 24-hour alarm system as soon as evaluation of the unit is complete. The design of the system and operational experience is discussed.
Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
5488129
Report Number(s):
UCRL-83664; CONF-800223-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English