Viability of Acoustic Techniques for Density and Mass Flow in Enrichment Plants
A key enabling capability for enrichment plant safeguards approaches being considered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is high-accuracy, non-invasive, unattended measurement of UF6 gas density and mass flow rate. The Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation is funding this project to evaluate the viability of acoustic techniques for measuring density and mass flow rate of UF6 gas in scenarios typical of gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants, with the goal of achieving better than 1% measurements. This report is a review of the progress in the first five months of the project. Initial results are encouraging: Air is a suitable surrogate gas for UF6 for the initial research effort; Measurable acoustic energy transferred through the air from the transmitting to the receiving transducer for equivalent UF6 pressures of 10 Torr; There is a monotonic relationship between air pressure and acoustic energy transferred through the air for equivalent UF6 pressures down to 10 Torr; The acoustic energy transferred through the air is observable above the acoustic energy transferred through the pipe wall. While there is considerable research left to determine the viability of using acoustic techniques to noninvasively measure the gas flow for gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants, these initial results are very encouraging and warrant the continued research effort.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1643683
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-25520; TRN: US2201539
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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