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Title: Experience of developing an integrated nondestructive assay system

Conference · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)
OSTI ID:5625911
;  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)

A consortium of laboratories is collaborating with the Savannah River Plant to develop an integrated system of state-of-the-art nondestructive assay (NDA) instrumentation to provide nuclear materials accounting and process control information for a new plutonium scrap recovery facility. Individual instruments report assay results to an instrument control computer (ICC); the ICC, in turn, is part of a larger computer network that includes computers that perform process control and materials accounting functions. The design of the integrated NDA measurement system is shown. Each NDA instrument that is part of the integrated system is microcomputer-based and thus is capable of stand-alone operation if the central computer is out of service. Certain hardware features, such as microcomputers, pulse processing modules, and multichannel analyzers, are standardized throughout the system. Another standard feature is the communication between individual NDA instruments and the ICC. The most unique phase of the project is the integral staging. The primary purpose of this phase is to check the communications between various computers and to verify the ICC software during the operation of the NDA instruments. Implementing this integrated system in a process environment represents a major step in realizing the full capabilities of modern NDA instrumentation.

OSTI ID:
5625911
Report Number(s):
CONF-871110-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 89-027999
Journal Information:
Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Vol. 55; Conference: 3. international conference on facility operations safeguards interface, San Diego, CA (USA), 29 Nov - 4 Dec 1987; ISSN 0003-018X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English