Online fiber-optic spectrophotometry

Conference · Sat Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5716779

Van Hare, D R; O'Rourke, P E; Prather, W S

The Savannah River Plant operates two radio-chemical separations areas to recover uranium and plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel and target assemblies. Chemical processes in these areas are controlled based on laboratory analysis of samples extracted from the process. While analytical results from the laboratory are reliable, the process of pulling samples, transporting them to the laboratory, analyzing them, and then reporting results is time consuming and potentially exposes many workers to highly radioactive solutions. To improve the timeliness of chemical information and reduce personnel radiation exposure, the Savannah River Laboratory has developed an online fiber optic spectrophotometer which combines three new technologies, fiber optics, diode array spectrophotometers, and multivariate data analysis. The analyzer monitors the uranium and nitrate concentration of seven aqueous process streams in a uranium purification process. The analyzer remotely controls the sampling of each process stream and monitors the relative flow rate through each sampler. Spectrophotometric data from the analyzer is processed by multivariate data analysis to give both uranium and nitrate concentrations as well as an indication of the quality of the data.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• OSTI ID: 5716779
• Report Number(s): DP-MS-89-34; CONF-890736--72; ON: DE89017852
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
055000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ACCURACY
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
FIBER OPTICS
MANAGEMENT
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
ON-LINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS
ON-LINE SYSTEMS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
URANIUM
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
URANYL COMPOUNDS
URANYL NITRATES
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS