TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL AUTORADIOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES: A COMPARISON STUDY
This report fulfills the FY 2006 Enhanced Surveillance Campaign Level 3 milestones for Task TSR 11.1 as defined in the execution plan [1, 2]. The purpose of this task is to reduce the cycle time necessary to complete analytical evaluations required for surveillance of reservoirs. The development of the digital autoradiography system supports this task. The digital autoradiography system is currently operational and ready for implementation in reservoir surveillance performed in the Materials Test Facility (MTF) at Savannah River Site (SRS). SRS requests design agency (Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory) concurrence for the implementation of this system and on the establishment, in conjunction with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), of the implementation requirements for this system. Stainless steel tritium reservoirs and pinch welded tubes, which have been exposed to tritium for a prolonged period, are destructively evaluated at the end of their service lives for a variety of reasons. One requirement of this evaluation is to assess the tritium diffusion into the reservoir material. The current method used to determine the geometry and depth of tritium penetration is autoradiography. This technique employs a photographic emulsion and has been effective for a number of years. The primary disadvantage of this technique is the time required to obtain results. The success of the traditional technique is dependent on many variables, such as the proficiency of the operators in conducting sample preparation, the geometry of the sample and the shelf life of the photographic chemicals. If results are not satisfactory, several repetitions are often required and usually add weeks to the total analysis time for the sample. Due to the extensive time required for the liquid emulsion autoradiography method, a new, faster technique was desired. Personnel from the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) have been working on a system based on digital imaging technology to replace the current method. The purpose of this report is to provide a description of the current method, a description of the equipment for the new digital method and its capabilities, and a direct comparison of the results between the existing and proposed techniques. The advantages of the digital method is the reduced time of exposure (from 24 hours to around 10 minutes), increased sample throughput, reduced rework of samples, and the elimination of chemical processing.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 893947
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-STI-2006-00086; TRN: US200625%%678
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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