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Title: Remote-Reading Safety and Safeguards Surveillance System for 3013 Containers

Abstract

At Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), plutonium oxide is being loaded into stainless steel containers for long-term storage on the Hanford Site. These containers consist of two weld-sealed stainless steel cylinders nested one within the other. A third container holds the plutonium within the inner cylinder. This design meets the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) storage standard, DOE-STD- 3013-2000, which anticipates a 50-year storage lifetime. The 3013 standard also requires a container surveillance program to continuously monitor pressure and to assure safeguards are adequate. However, the configuration of the container system makes using conventional measurement and monitoring methods difficult. To better meet the 3013 monitoring requirements, a team from Fluor Hanford (who manages the PFP), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Vista Engineering Technologies, LLC, developed a safer, cost-efficient, remote PFP 3013 container surveillance system. This new surveillance system is a combination of two successfully deployed technologies: (1) a magnetically coupled pressure gauge developed by Vista Engineering and (2) a radio frequency (RF) tagging device developed by PNNL. This system provides continuous, 100% monitoring of critical parameters with the containers in place, as well as inventory controls. The 3013 container surveillance system consists of three main elements: (1) an internalmore » magnetic pressure sensor package, (2) an instrument pod (external electronics package), and (3) a data acquisition storage and display computer. The surveillance system described in this paper has many benefits for PFP and DOE in terms of cost savings and reduced personnel exposure. In addition, continuous safety monitoring (i.e., internal container pressure and temperature) of every container is responsible nuclear material stewardship and fully meets and exceeds DOE's Integrated Surveillance Program requirements.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA (US); Fluor Hanford, Inc., P.O. Box 1000, Richland, WA; Vista Engineering, LLC, 8203 West Quinalt Ave., Suite 200, Kennewick, WA (US)
Sponsoring Org.:
US Department of Energy (US)
OSTI Identifier:
834048
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Waste Management 2002 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/24/2002--02/28/2002; Other Information: PBD: 26 Feb 2002
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION; CONFIGURATION; CONTAINERS; DATA ACQUISITION; DESIGN; LIFETIME; MONITORING; MONITORS; PERSONNEL; PHOSPHORS; PLUTONIUM; PLUTONIUM OXIDES; SAFEGUARDS; SAFETY; STAINLESS STEELS; STORAGE; WASTE MANAGEMENT

Citation Formats

Lechelt, W M, Skorpik, J R, Silvers, K L, Szempruch, R W, Douglas, D G, and Fein, K O. Remote-Reading Safety and Safeguards Surveillance System for 3013 Containers. United States: N. p., 2002. Web.
Lechelt, W M, Skorpik, J R, Silvers, K L, Szempruch, R W, Douglas, D G, & Fein, K O. Remote-Reading Safety and Safeguards Surveillance System for 3013 Containers. United States.
Lechelt, W M, Skorpik, J R, Silvers, K L, Szempruch, R W, Douglas, D G, and Fein, K O. 2002. "Remote-Reading Safety and Safeguards Surveillance System for 3013 Containers". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/834048.
@article{osti_834048,
title = {Remote-Reading Safety and Safeguards Surveillance System for 3013 Containers},
author = {Lechelt, W M and Skorpik, J R and Silvers, K L and Szempruch, R W and Douglas, D G and Fein, K O},
abstractNote = {At Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), plutonium oxide is being loaded into stainless steel containers for long-term storage on the Hanford Site. These containers consist of two weld-sealed stainless steel cylinders nested one within the other. A third container holds the plutonium within the inner cylinder. This design meets the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) storage standard, DOE-STD- 3013-2000, which anticipates a 50-year storage lifetime. The 3013 standard also requires a container surveillance program to continuously monitor pressure and to assure safeguards are adequate. However, the configuration of the container system makes using conventional measurement and monitoring methods difficult. To better meet the 3013 monitoring requirements, a team from Fluor Hanford (who manages the PFP), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Vista Engineering Technologies, LLC, developed a safer, cost-efficient, remote PFP 3013 container surveillance system. This new surveillance system is a combination of two successfully deployed technologies: (1) a magnetically coupled pressure gauge developed by Vista Engineering and (2) a radio frequency (RF) tagging device developed by PNNL. This system provides continuous, 100% monitoring of critical parameters with the containers in place, as well as inventory controls. The 3013 container surveillance system consists of three main elements: (1) an internal magnetic pressure sensor package, (2) an instrument pod (external electronics package), and (3) a data acquisition storage and display computer. The surveillance system described in this paper has many benefits for PFP and DOE in terms of cost savings and reduced personnel exposure. In addition, continuous safety monitoring (i.e., internal container pressure and temperature) of every container is responsible nuclear material stewardship and fully meets and exceeds DOE's Integrated Surveillance Program requirements.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/834048}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2002},
month = {Tue Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2002}
}

Conference:
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