IAEA Verification Experiment at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant: Report on the Cascade Header Enrichment Monitor
- LANL
The authors describe the Cascade Header Enrichment Monitor (CHEM) for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon, Ohio, and present the calibration and measurement results. The US government has offered excess fissile material that is no longer needed for defense purposes for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection. Measurement results provided by the CHEM were used by the IAEA in a verification experiment to provide confidence that the US successfully blended excess highly enriched uranium (HEU) down to low enriched uranium (LEU). The CHEM measured the uranium enrichment in two cascade header pipes, a 20.32-cm HEU pipe and a 7.62-cm product LEU pipe. The CHEM determines the amount of {sup 235}U from the 185.7-keV gamma-ray photopeak and the amount of total uranium by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) of the 98.4-keV x-ray from uranium with a {sup 57}Co XRF source. The ratio yields the enrichment. The CHEM consists of a collimator assembly, an electromechanically cooled germanium detector, and a rack-mounted personal computer running commercial and custom software. The CHEM was installed in December 1997 and was used by the IAEA inspectors for announced and unannounced inspections on the HEU and LEU header pipes through October 1998. The equipment was sealed with tamper-indicating enclosures when the inspectors were not present.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nonproliferation and National Security (NN) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 8200
- Report Number(s):
- LA-13557-MS
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Gamma techniques for IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards at centrifuge enrichment cascades
NDA measurement of the enrichment of uranium in the product header pipes in the cascade area
Related Subjects
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
MIXTURES
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PERFORMANCE
PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
VERIFICATION